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f&arbarij College librarg

FROM THE

BRIGHT LEGACY.

Descendants of Henry Bright, ir., who died at Water-
town, Mass., in 16S6, are entitled to hold scholarships in
Harvard College, established in 1SS0 under the will of

JONATHAN BROWN BRIGHT

of Waltham, Mass., with one half the income of this
Legacy. Such descendants failing, other persons are
eligible to the scholarships. The will requires that
this announcement shall be made in every book added
to the Library under its provisions.

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EASTWOOD

Notes on the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the Parish

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EASTWOOD

Notes on the Ecclesiastical Antiquities

of the Parish

BY THE

REV. GEORGE CAMPBELL

Minister of the Parish

“ EX SYLVA VULGO DICTA ORIENTALI.”

—Jak's Onomasticon.

PAISLEY: ALEXANDER GARDNER

publisher to per late AaJestB (Queen Victoria

1902

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77,11

PRINTED BY

ALEXANDER GARDNER. PAISLEY

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Sir 3obn fl&aywell Sttrling-nDarwell,

JSaronet ot polloft, A.p.,

This Work is, by Permission,

DeMcateb,

With every Sentiment of Esteem and Regard,
By his obliged and faithful Servant,

The Author.

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INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

"The following work, like various others of its kind, originated in
a desire, on the part of the Author, to make his parishioners
acquainted with something of the ecclesiastical history of their parish.
It accordingly originally took the form of lectures addressed to
them; and while these have been greatly added to by subsequent
research, the homely form of address, in which it was at first cast,
has not been altogether abandoned.

It may be mentioned that a small portion of the contents of
the following pages was read before the Aberdeen Ecclesiological
Society some years ago, and subsequently appeared in their Trans-
actions.

No one can be more sensible than he is of the great defect from
which it suffers, in its not embracing an account of the civil, as
well as the ecclesiastical, antiquities of an interesting parish. But
he has refrained from touching that branch of the subject, not only
from a sense of his own incompetence to deal with it, but from
the knowledge and persuasion that a valued friend, and most com-

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INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

petent archaeologist, will, it is hoped, before long, produce a work
which will meet the highest expectations that can be formed of it.

The Author is very much gratified, at being able to prefix to
this work, an interesting portrait of Mr. Wodrow. For this he is
indebted to Mrs. Wodrow Thomson, of Buckingham Terrace, Edin-
burgh, who has kindly lent him a miniature of the historian, beauti-
fully executed, it is believed by Tassie — which is here reproduced.
The same lady has also, with singular kindness, bestowed upon the
Author, some valued relics of Wodrow. Chief among these, is the
remnant of a pen, bequeathed on his death-bed by Matthew Henry
to the historian, it being the same with which that eminent com-
mentator wrote the latter part of his celebrated work. The other
remains are Wodrow’s silver spectacles, and his pocket-knife. This
work also contains two photographs of objects referred to in the text,
and there sufficiently described.

1st May, 1902.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAQE~

CHAPTER I., 9

Origin of parishes, and of Eastwood — Early Christian teachers in Scotland — S. Oonval, his identity
— Others of a like name — His arriral in the West — Inchinnan — His ordination and labours
— Condition of neighbourhood — Some early places and names — Carwadric — Auldhouse —
Old well beside the Saint’s settlement here — Bangor’s hill — Burnfield — The monastery —
Difficult question as between Pollok and Eastwood — Grant of the Church of Pollok — Early
names of the Church — Other place names — S. Conval’s public services — Funeral of King
Aidan — Coronation of Kenneth I. — S. Oonval’s writings — S. Conval’s day — Death and
interment — His stone — Archdeaconry.

CHAPTER II., 31

Obscurity of mediseval period — The Celtic Church reappears — Church of Hestwod in 1265 —
Various of its vicars — Controversy as to an appointment — Layng successful — His character
as rural dean — Robert Maxwell, Bishop of Orkney — His services and benefactions.

CHAPTER III., 39

The Reformation — Office of reader — Mr. Thomas Jak first Protestant vicar — His prior offioes
and history — Several parishes under his charge — Imprisonment and molestation — Eglinton
family — His death and effects — His family — His Latin poem — Story of his daughter’s
abduction, a curious and romantic account — Erection of Church of 1577 — Its inscription
stone — Other remains — Plan and division of the Church — Burial vault — Recollections of old
inhabitants — Next two ministers.

CHAPTER IV., 53

Rev. George Maxwell — Rev. John Maxwell — The latter’s checkered history — The Glasgow
Assembly of 1638 — Mr. Hew Blair’s ministry — Mr. Maxwell’s eventual return to Eastwood
— His second ministry there — Enlargement of the parish — Failing health and demission of
the charge — His son succeeds to Pollok — Mr. Maxwell’s addition to Auldhouse — Memorial
stone there.

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CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER V., 64

Soldiers of the Commonwealth invading the Presbytery — Mr. Hugh Smith called and ordained at
Eastwood — His brother, William, minister of Largs — Mr. Hugh’s persecution — Deprived of
his charge — Mr. Jamieson of Govan, and his wife’s testamentary inventory.

CHAPTER VI., 69

Mr. Robert Hume, Mr. Hector M'Laine, and Mr. William Fisher, incumbents under Episcopacy
— The latter shelters the persecuted laird — He himself “ rabbled” — Deserts his charge
from fear — The parish under Episcopacy — Sir George Maxwell persecuted, imprisoned, and
lined — Mr. Smith’s outed ministry — The Sacrament dispensed at Haggs Castle and at
Kennishead — Mr. Wodrow’s father preaching in Haggswood — Characteristic account from
Galt’s Ringan OUhaize of Sir George’s benevolence — His son. Sir John, suffers like his
father — Sufferings of other parishioners — Thomas Jackson persecuted and banished — John
Park and James Algie suffer martyrdom — Robert King submits and escapes — Banner of the
Covenant at Eastwood Mains.

CHAPTER VII. 86

Witchcraft at Polloktoun — Sir George assailed by hags, and soon after dies — His son’s descriptive
account of the case — Professor George Sinclair and his celebrated book — An extraordinary
girl and her revelations — Making and roasting of images — Mr. Hugh Smith, minister, also
bewitched, and his sufferings — Four women and a young man found guilty and executed —
Scene at the gallows — The girl Douglas and her subsequent history.

CHAPTER VIII., 96

Mr. Hugh Smith's death — Mr. Matthew Crawford privately called and ordained — His early life —
In Holland with Carstairs — His published writings — His history of the Church in MS. — His
public services to the Church after the Revolution settlement — His regular appointment to
the parish at that period — Repairs on the church and manse — Declining health and denth
—His family — Commencement of the Session Records — Their oontents — Place-names —
Character and habits of the people.

CHAPTER IX., 106

Mr. Wodrow’s appointment and ordination — The Wodrow family and their connections — Professor
James Wodrow — Merkdaily meeting-house — His persecution before the Revolution — Stirring
scenes, especially at Wodrow's birth — Early recollections — Landing of the Prince of Orange
— Wodrow’s life of his father — Librarian of the College — Residence at Pollok- — Study of
mineralogy and of antiquities — Parish" work — Pulpit oratory — Proposed translation on
different occasions.

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CONTENTS.

PAG*

CHAPTER X., - - - - - - - - - 117

Circumstances which led him to contemplate his history — Diligence in coliectiug materials for it—
Apologies for its imperfection in style — Its publication — List of names of subscribers — Grant
to the author from State Exchequer — Evidences to its trustworthiness — New edition in
1829-30 — Other publications — HiB published correspondence — The Holy Communion at
Eastwood — His Analecta.

CHAPTER XI., 127

Mr. Wodrow’s marriage — His widow’s removal to Glasgow — His sons, daughters, and descendants
— His catechetical lists — The Session Records in his time — Lord Pollok — Communion Cups
— Parochial schools and schoolmasters — Stewart of Pardovan — His collections — His death
at Pollok — Interment at Eastwood, and memorial tablet — Wodrow’s last illness, death, and
burial.

CHAPTER XII., --------- 138

Mr. Wodrow’s son succeeds him — The parish in his time — His retirement, and death at Cumbrae
— Mr. Simpson appointed — Objections to his settlement — Removal of the Church to a new
site — That Church’s history — Is replaced by the present edifice in 1862-3 — Description of
the same — Change of site of manse, and excambion of glebe in 1854 — The King’s Covenant
— Mr. Simpson has Mr. M'Caig appointed as assistant and successor — His brief ministry
and death — Mr. Stevenson McGill becomes incumbent — His translation to Glasgow — Mr.
Robert Anderson the next minister, and his translation to Edinburgh — Rapid succession of
ministers, and memories of them — Mr. George Logan — Hia student life, earlier charges, aud
appointment to Eastwood — His characteristics and his ministry — Anecdote — His intended
demission — His death — His family — Mr. MHntyre’s appointment — Low state of the con-
gregation after the Secession — His death, and appointment of a successor — Church exten-
sion in the latter part of last century — Memories of Sir John and Lady Matilda Maxwell, of
Darcy Brisbane (Lady Maxwell), of Mrs. Ewing, of Sir William and Lady Anna Stirling
Maxwell, and of others — Conclusion.

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PA RDO V A N'S MONUMENT

Eastwood Clmrchyard

MEMORIAL STONE OF EASTWOOD CHURCH
Anno lf>77

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Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Eastwood.

CHAPTER I.

Parishes, as such — aud they had an ecclesiastical origin, the word
in Greek signifying a vicinity of houses, such as might be served
by one church and clergyman, baptismal districts, as they were
described — were not formed till about the twelfth century. But
the light of Christianity had been more or less systematically dis-
seminated in Scotland from, at any rate, the time of S. Ninian, in
the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth centuries ; who,
besides being the apostle of Galloway, zealously propagated the gospel
in many parts of the country, and especially among the Southern
Piets. He had, among other places, founded a Christian community
at Cathures, subsequently called Glasgow, where the Cathedral now
stands, but, as in many other cases, it had been dispersed; and when
S. Kentigern a century later visited the spot with a view to settling
upon it — led, as his biographers tell us, by divine direction — he found
only a burial-ground. Here, however, he established himself, though
afterwards for a time expelled by persecution; but to his day, earlier

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ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF EASTWOOD.

or later, we are to trace the final entrance of our holy religion into
our immediate district, probably about the middle or towards the
close of the sixth century. He may be called the great light of this
western district of Scotland, as, during his banishment, he was the
evangeliser of Annandale, and of parts of Cumberland and Wales;
while S. Columba, his great contemporary and friend, was still more
the apostle of Argyleshire and the Isles, of the north and other
parts of this ancient kingdom, and through his disciples of vast
districts besides in Northumberland and elsewhere in England, and
even on the Continent of Europe.

There is little reason to doubt that Eastwood owes this inestim-
able boon immediately to S. Conval, of whom we have various
accounts. Among, not the great saints of these early days in Scot-
land, whose names have been just mentioned, but after them, there
are notices of three — stars of lesser magnitude, hut still conspicuous
among the lights of the day — S. Conval or Connall, S. Baldred or
Hebridius, and S. Dunstane or Drostan, “thre holy men of our
natioun.” There are indeed recorded several of the same, or nearly
the same names as our saint, but there are good grounds for believing
that some if not all of these are to be regarded as one and the same
person . 1 His name is a Latin and a place-name, Convallis signifying

1 Besides those referred to, the existing parish of Kirkconnel in Nithsdale, and the sup-
pressed church of the same name in Annandale, with two others in the Stewartry of Kircud-

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ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF EASTWOOD.

a valley shut in on every side; and he may very possibly have taken
it from some Irish monastery so situated and so called, that in which
he received his early Christian instruction, and at the hands in the
first instance of S. Columba.

We find one of the name of Convallanus, called an abbot and
also a confessor. Boethius says that he introduced into Scotland
the Rogation or Gang-days, that he was abbot of Iona, and had
the gift of prophecy. Eastwood and Pollok were under his patron-
age. Then, we have a second called Convallus, a confessor, at
Inchinnan, as we shall afterwards see. He was also connected with
Cumnock and Ochiltree. We find a third Convallus at Cross-
raguel ; and a fourth Convallus, a king, who was celebrated for
his piety and his respect for the clergy. He is said to have
excited the commendation of Columba, and to have been connected
with Dunkeld. Boethius says that he “ buildit ane rich abbay ”
there, and gives an account of an alleged meeting of S. Mungo with
S. Colme, when the former was “ ravist in spreit be his divine
wourdes ” ; but such a meeting is not confirmed by other accounts of the
histories of these saints at this early date; nor can we suppose that

bright, owe their foundation and name moat probably to an Irish saint, Congal, corrupted into
Connall, who was connected with Holy wood. In the first of these parishes his tomb was pointed
out. (See Chalmers* Caledonia .) These foundations appear to have been of later date, as the
prefix of their name, Kirk , is of Saxon origin, not Kil , as it would have been if it had come down
from Celtic times.

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ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF EASTWOOD.

S. Conval, a disciple of S. Mungo, was already or at any time a king
at Dunkeld. Although there are various instances of kings in these
times among confessors and monks, and although the Convallus of
Inchinnan was of princely blood, we may dismiss the idea that this
royal Convallus is one with the others, as at least not supported by
sufficient evidence.

But there is every probability that the first three are to be
identified, although there are difficulties in reaching even this con-
clusion. Thus the Convallus of Inchinnan was a native of Ireland,
while the Convallus of Crossraguel is said to have been trained from
his earliest years in that Abbey. Then the Convallus of Eastwood is
said to have been abbot of Iona. This of itself is not corro-
borated, as no one of that name occupied such a position ; and
were it so, it would not consist with his identity with the Con-
vallus of Inchinnan . 1 Again his remains were honoured there, while
a pre-Reformation will expresses the wish of the testators that his
body might be deposited beside the dust of S. Conval at Cumnock . 2

1 There is mention, however, of a Conval who, when the schism occurred at Iona at the
beginning of the eighth century, was elected abbot of the Anti-Roman party.

2 He is believed, besides, to have founded Ochiltree, and Oban or Dunstafihage, if not also
Rutherglen, where he certainly ministered. It may be assumed as beyond dispute that S. Conval
propagated the Christian faith in another district of Ayrshire, that of Irvine. There his memory
was honoured, and in the parish church of that very ancient burgh he had an altar, which was
situated in the south aisle, and to which endowments were attached and certain specified gifts
presented, including a silver cup and overlaid with gold, and a missal book to remain for ever at

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Amidst such divers authorities in these dark ages, and the competing
claims of different monasteries to the honours of having certain saints
as abbots during their lifetime, and containing their relics after
their departure, it is often impossible to decide ; but there seems to
be every reason to regard as one the Conval or Convallanus of
Eastwood and the Convallus of Inchinnan, places in the same
district on the south of the Clyde, both on the banks of the
Cart and separated by no great distance. Upon this generally
received assumption I shall accordingly proceed . 1

The accounts which we have of S. Conval in his connection with
Inchinnan are the fullest. He is described as an ornament of the
primitive church of the Scots, and eminent among her saints, as For-
dun says, “ miraculis et virtutilms praeclarus.” These accounts are
to the following effect — a mixture, we may suppose, of fact and
fable.

He was, like S. Columba, the son of an Irish prince whose name
is unknown, and he is described in the first lesson of the Aberdeen
Breviary as “ Rex Hibemiensium." Seeking to leave his native

that altar. There has also been preserved the “ Rental of Saint Conwall, registered by Sir
George Barton, chaplain of the said Altar / 1 among the items of which are those arising “ from the
back tenement of Saint Conwall,” the location of which is farther described.— {From the Muni-
ments of the Royal Burgh of Irvine , Yol. I. — The Ayrshire and Galloway Archaeological
Association.)

1 Besides being patron of particular churches and of a district, S. Conval was also one of the
tutelary saints of the nation of the Scots.

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ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF EASTWOOD.

country through the desire of winning souls to God, “the stone on
which he stood by the sea-shore became a skiff, whereon he was
borne to the river Clyde, where he landed. The stone was there-
after called S. Conval’s chariot, and by the touch of it men and
cattle were healed ; and many wonderful cures are attributed to the
saint.” 1 It was perhaps a fragment of this stone which stood in
former times near the ancient ford of Inchinnan on the Renfrew side
of the river, and called S. Conallie’s stone.

It will be observed that our saint did not join his compatriots
under S. Columba on their pilgrimage to Iona,* while according to all
accounts he subsequently visited them there ; but passed the region,
and put himself under the discipline of S. Kentigern : and it is
hence very probable that he was connected with a different family
and faction from that of S. Columba. We are informed in the Acts
of the Bollandists that S. Conval came “ad Clodum Jlumen, cujus
ager, propter omnia fmctuum genera , aliasque amocintatas, Scotiee
paradutus habatur.” * The spot was at Blythswood, formerly called

1 The story of the stone is mentioned in the second lesson of the Aberdeen Breviary . For
this and other notices of the saint see Lives of the Iiish Saints , by the Rev. John (later Canon)
O’ Hanlon, P.P., Irish town, Dublin.

2 He was thus not of the same company as Constantine, formerly King of Cornwall, who,
having resigned his Crown, according to ancient chronicles, came to this country from Ireland in
the train of S. Columba in the year 665, and became the first abbot of the monastery at Qovan,
which he had founded, and this although Govan on its two sides adjoin so closely both Inchinnan
and Eastwood.

* Bollandists Acta SS. Maii, tom : iv., p. 182.

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Renfield, beside Inchinnan, where all the streams of Renfrewshire may
be said to discharge themselves into the great river of the west, a
parish, however, which derives its name not from him, but from a
saint, Inan, of a subsequent century, to whom the church there was
dedicated, on an Inch, or island in the Clyde at its confluence with
the Cart. That river up to a comparatively recent time, instead of
being confined to one deepened channel as now, spread itself into
various branches, forming islands, and hence the name Inch is re-
tained by places, such as Abbotsincb, which is now entirely cut off
from it.

Arrived here, he was without doubt in due time ordained by
S. Kentigern, and employed by him to preach the faith, baptize converts,
and found churches and monasteries in the district now bearing the
name of Renfrewshire ; 1 and not confining his labours to his first
settlement, where indeed he is believed to have founded such, it is
manifest that he sought and found an entrance into this our
neighbourhood. The country around was peopled by some tribes
of the Britons of the Kingdom of Strathclyde or Cumbria. A
wild and warlike race our fathers were, finding a home in the

1 Besides the dedication to him of the church or churches at Pollok and Eastwood, he
possessed, conjointly with S. Andrew and S. Ninian, a chapel in the parish church of Renfrew,
founded by James Finlay or Moderwell, vicar of Eastwood, on the north side thereof, and under
the foot of the cross, “ sub solio crucifixi 99 ; and there was a chapel dedicated to him at Fereneze, a
village situated a little to the south-east of Paisley.

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ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF EASTWOOD.

forest-land with which the country was covered, and thus obtaining
a subsistence by hunting the deer, the boar, and other wild
animals, and possibly by cultivating on a small scale the rich
lands on the river side, or where a clearing had been effected
round the fortress of some primitive church, Celtic, of course, like
the people themselves. Nowhere does the nomenclature evince the
wooded character of the country more clearly than in our parish, as
will be hereafter shown ; and the name of the church and barony
is derived from the extensive wood lying east of the Roman station
and the future church establishment at Paisley. It is to be remem-
bered that some centuries prior to the times of which we speak the
Romans had invaded Southern Scotland, and founded a station at
Paisley. Their troops would make excursions to overawe the native
inhabitants of the wilds, and possess their lands, while they in-
trenched themselves in camps, British we presume them to be from
their circular fonn, and one of which is to be found in the Norwood*
of Pollok, and another, remarkably well defined and preserved, on
the height of the estate, hence called Camphill, on the northern
bounds of the parish, and now included in the Queen’s Park of the
city of Glasgow.

The one evidence of the presence of the Romans in this parish
is found in the name Arden, where they presumably burned the
valuable lime which is still so extensively used. The nationality of

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the early inhabitants in this western district is attested very ex-
pressly by Taliessin, an early British poet, who says, “ From Penryn
XJleth,” which has been identified with the Dovehill in Glasgow,

“ From Penryn Uleth to Loch Reon (Loch Ryan)

The Cymry are of one mind, bold heroea.”

Who these chieftains were, or what were the sites of their primi-
tive fortresses, we know not ; but probably they were first converted
to the faith, when they would be a protection to the saint, and
under their wing the people would be gathered into the Christian
fold. One personal name remains in the immediate district, pre-
served in what is now a farm, Carwadric. Wadric, as a child
may perceive from his name, was a Saxon, and we cannot be
certain that he existed in the time of S. ConvaL But we know
that many parts of Southern Scotland were occupied by Angles,
Jutes and Saxons in these early centuries, and that at this very
time the Saxons were pushing, with various success, their conquests
in the East and West. We have names of Teutonic or Scandi-
navian origin ; and, for example, the final syllables of Busby and
Drumby, on the very border of this parish, signifying in their
northern language, a dwelling. Carwadric is on a site of natural
strength ; and its owner, whether Wadric, or some previous Celtic
chief, may have been the patron of the saint ; or he may have
found such, — I am not yet speaking of Pollok, — in the pre-Norman

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ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF EASTWOOD.

proprietor of the forest of Eastwood in his secluded castle, where,
at the present Eastwood farm, still called in popular parlance “ The
Wood,” an early fortalice may have stood before the age of the
Norman Montgomeries, of whose castle only a mound remains in
its picturesque situation, but one which it would be interesting to
have excavated. Or, more likely than all, the residence of that
early chief and benefactor of the Church would be at Auldhouse,
in the near neighbourhood of S. Conval’s settlement. The fortified
part of the present mansion is without doubt the oldest inhabited
house in the parish, and the whole place has every appearance of
age, and long occupation and cultivation. But although, possibly,
no stone now stands which goes back to the saint’s time, it has a
close historical association with the Church of Eastwood and the
Abbey of Paisley, and its estate is still regarded as Kirk lands.

Although it is anticipating by some centuries, it may be here
mentioned that in 1265 Roger, the son of Reginald de Aldhus,
resigned all claims to these lands, which he described as the
“ dos ” of S. Conval, which he and his father had in ferm. John,
his son, again renounced his right in a most solemn manner in
the year 1284, by taking a sacred oath on the subject, in the
same frame of mind in which his father had said that he feared the
divine vengeance if he should retain that land to the peril of his
soul. It is worthy of note that Thomas de Polloc, chaplain, was

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ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF EASTWOOD.

a witness to the first of these deeds, and Herbert de Maxwell to
a convention founded on the second. 1

The particular spot which the saint selected for his cell would
be determined, as was so commonly the case, by the then remark-
able spring which can still be traced in the lower part of what
was the glebe before the excambion in 1854. Within the memory
of man, even of my own, as I resided for a year in the old
manse, before its removal from the early site, this well, as stated
in the last Statistical Account, discharged about eleven imperial
pints each minute, and was perennial, affected neither by drought
nor rain. Up to that date the water was sufficiently abundant to
supply the manse and all the families in what was still a bit of a
hamlet, the remains of the Kirkton, as it was formerly called. But
coincident with the removal of the last living remains of an ecclesias-
tical establishment from the spot, it has well nigh dried up, through
disturbances caused, it is believed, by the working of pits and quarries
in the neighbourhood ; but it is confidently hoped that what
remains of it may be preserved, and a memorial erected over it
of the long-departed past, situated as it is within the enclosure of
the now extended burial ground. There can be no doubt that in
its waters our fathers were baptized when they renounced Druid-

1 Begietmm Monasterii de Paeeelet , pp. 63-67.

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ism, or whatever was their pagan form of faith, and a sacredness
would thus naturally attach to it in former times. It would be
the well of the foundation planted here ; and, to borrow the
language which has been employed of another sacred well else-
where, the humble and devout of many an age might be re-
minded on quenching their thirst at its brink, of that “ fountain
which has been opened in Israel, and of that stream which
maketh glad the city of our God.” 1

We can somewhat imagine to ourselves the appearance which
this early settlement would present ; the cell of the saint beside
the spring ; and, hard-by, his humble wattled church on the
highest knoll in the immediate vicinity of the well Around would
be clustered the equally lowly huts of the monks ; the sacred
burial-ground where our dead are still laid, beside the edifice in
which for perhaps twelve hundred years, the voice of prayer and
praise ascended to our Divine Lord ; and what was till lately the
glebe, almost without doubt in the possession of the Church for
that long period, and even then under cultivation by the monks.
They thus set an example to the inhabitants of the “ forest prime-
val,” in which it formed a clearing, flanked, as has been already
suggested, to the right and left by strongholds at Auldhouse and

1 New Statistical Account, Peebles-shire, p. 39.

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Carwadric, if not also to the back by a castle at Eastwood, with its
orchard, (the name is still preserved there), perhaps originally itself
formed by the monks ; while, not impossibly, the haughs in front,
to this day liable to floods, formed a sheet of water which drained
the surrounding heights, and overflowed into the Auldhouse bum
on its way to the Cart, and it to the Clyde at Inchinnan, the site
of the saint’s first settlement. On the opposite side of the valley
we have Bangor’s hill, a name signifying, according to Chalmers , 1
the inner circle of a wattle-fence ; and thus, secondarily, a place
of retreat or security. Among various places which have received
this name is that cathedral city in Wales which had its origin in
those early times in a wattle-built monastery, containing no fewer
than two thousand brethren, and that other great establishment
on Belfast Lough. Our Bangor’s hill may thus with the greatest
probability go back to the days of our parochial saint, having
been the site of such a monastic settlement, almost midway between
Eastwood and Pollok. Here also it may be incidentally mentioned
that the name Auldhouse is compounded of a Celtic and a Saxon
word, Aid signifying a burn or rivulet, and accordingly the place
itself signifying Burnhouse. In Auldhouseburn we have therefore a
reduplication of sense, as we often find in words formed out of

1 Caledonia, Yol. I., p. 61.

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more than one tongue, “ mixed names compounded by grafting
English words on Celtic roots.” Not unconnected with this is
probably the name Bumfield, the farm closely adjoining the ancient
site and on the side of the same burn, for although in some old
maps or documents it is called “ Burntfield,” and in 1621 the
kirk land of Eastwood is named Broomfield, we know how little
correct or uniform spelling was attended to in those times.

That a monastery was attached to S. Conval’s settlement here
is not 'only probable, inasmuch as such was so common an
adjunct of these early missionary churches, but it is rendered
certain by the fact that the saint, in the very records which
describe him as the early light of Eastwood and Pollok, is called
“ Abbas " or abbot. These, of course, it is superfluous to say,
did not resemble altogether the like institutions of later times.
The monks, for example, did not vow or practise celibacy. They
lived in their separate huts, most commonly with their families ;
but whatever may have been the case at Iona, with its Woman’s
Island, it can scarcely be doubted that in such a place as this
they had their families by them if they were married ; and cer-
tainly in many cases the humble monks would not add domestic
burdens to their perilous and self-denying lot. They would observe
all the primitive hours of worship by night and by day, and they
would go boldly forth at the abbot’s command to preach the faith

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in other districts, of which this formed the centre or parent
church.

But a different question here arises as to the saint’s connec-
tion with Pollok, as well as with Eastwood. The same documents
which describe him as abbot, and of Eastwood, equally mention
the ancient name of Pollok ; and in the deeds of the thirteenth
century already mentioned, the land of Aldhus is expressly and
repeatedly called the dowry of the church of S. Conval of Polloc,
a significant circumstance as bearing upon this complicated ques-
tion — that land, lying so near the church of Eastwood, being thus
so studiously connected with Pollok. The names are not properly
interchangeable. Pollok is the name of a large district (Cosmo
Innes thinks originally a united estate), extending from the heights
of Mearns, where is situated the Castle of Upper Pollok, as far
as the Clyde, and including Pollokshields, as it would also of
course embrace Eastwood. If we are to found an opinion upon
the name, which is believed to signify a little pool or stagnant water,
that district and estate must have received its denomination from
Nether Pollok, where by far the richer land is found, fitly described
by Hamilton of Wisbaw, an old writer, as “in a fertile soil, ane
great old house,” and beside which legislative assemblies and courts
would be convened at that most interesting spot in the park,
called the Lawhill ; while Upper Pollok is certainly a place of

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commanding position and great strength. But without entering
upon such questions, it must be said that everything points to a
contemporaneous religious settlement under the same saint at both
spots ; and there was, apparently, for many centuries a chapel
attached to the castle at Nether Pollok, if not a parish, for it
ranks with the other kirks of the district in all the historic docu-
ments. “Before the end of the twelfth century,” according to the
great authority just mentioned, who regards Peter the son of
Fulbert as the owner of both Upper and Nether Pollok, he “gave
to the monks of Paisley the church of Pollok, with its pertinents
in lands and waters, plains and pastures, which was confirmed to
them for their own use and support by Bishop Joceline, who died
in 1199. In 1227 at the general settlement of the allowances to
the vicars of the Abbey churches, the vicar of Pollok was appointed
to have the altar dues, and two chalders of meal, with five acres
of land by the church, the rest of the church land remaining
with the monks.” He adds that “ from the thirteenth century

the parish of Eastwood has comprehended both the lands of Nether
Pollok and Eastwood;” and after 1265 “Pollok disappears as a
separate parish and parochial name. It is not known whether it
included Upper Pollok, now a part of the parish of Mearns. Its
ancient church probably stood beside the castle upon the banks of

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the Cart The old church may have continued to exist

as a chapel .” 1

It is certain that Pollok is an older name than Eastwood,

the one being Celtic, and the other Saxon, and Eastwood may

have had an earlier name which is now lost ; 3 but Sir William
Fraser's idea is that when the parishes were united, probably about
the fourteenth century, its name was changed to Eastwood, from

the circumstances that the new church, which henceforth served

both estates, was in proximity to the castle of that name. It
is not, however, to be forgotten that Eastwood was recognised by
name in a Papal Bull of the previous century.

Altogether it must be acknowledged that the question is sur-
rounded with perplexity. In addition to the churches mentioned,

1 It seems to support the view that at a certain date this was a private chaplaincy, that in a
confirmation by James IV. of a charter by John Maxwell of Nether Pollok in favour of John
Lord Sempill of lands of Dykbar, etc., the following are the witnesses : — u Coram hie testibus,
Johanne Simple, Niniane Marschall, Hugono Maxwell, et domino Jacobo Knox, capellano, cum
diversis aliis.” This is dated at“meum m&nerium de Nethir Pollock,” 15th July, 1495: and
the confirmation is signed at Glasgow on the same day. ( Collections of the County of Renfrew.)

2 In the Chartulary of Paisley (f. 57, p. 18), it is called the parish of Aldhouse, sometimes
spelt Alehouse ; and in the old register of Glasgow Cathedral it is described as “ Eastwood,
Eykwode, or Ligcrwode.” The second of these evidently denotes oak wood, as we have Aiken*
head in the adjoining parish of Cathcart. As for the name Ligerwode, closely resembling,
'especially in some of its ancient forms, that of Legerwood in Berwickshire, it is believed
apparently by Chalmers to signify, in Saxon, the hollow part of the wood. No word could
better express the site of the ancient castle of Eastwood, which might give its name to the church
in the immediate neigbourhood upon which that hollow site debouches. (For my authority as to
the names in this old register, see Scotimonasticon : by Mackenzie E.C. Walcot, B.D., F.S.A.,
London, 1874.)

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there seems to have been a chapel near Upper Pollok, the site of
which was marked by a heap of stones almost within living
memory. In proof of this we have ecclesiastical names in Capel-
rig, or the Chapelridge, as well as, near by, Deaconshank, and
Patterton, if that name is to be so regarded. Among other

memorials of early Christianity in the vicinity, there was evidently
a cross, for devotional or like purposes, which gave its name to
the ancient property of Crosslee on the Eastwood barony, as there
is a stone of the same kind on a farm on the estate of Capelrig ;
and the now populous district of Crosshill and Crossmyloof in the
parish of Cathcart derived their names from similar erections.

We must now return to close in a few words the record of
the career of S. Conval. In addition to his labours in propa-
gating the gospel, and fostering his churches and monasteries, he
was a man of public eminence, and a counsellor of kings, as well
as a noted orator in his day, for he was selected to preach the
sermon at the funeral of King Aidan, a warlike monarch, the most
celebrated of the line of Dalriad Scots, who was crowned by
Columba himself, when, according to Baring Gould in his life of
that saint, and Smith in his Dictionary of Christian Antiquities ,
he was enthroned on the Stone of Destiny, afterwards taken to
Dunstaffnage, thence to Scone, and finally carried away by Edward
I. to Westminster. This function is specially interesting as being

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the first on record of Coronation as a Christian rite. His inter-
ment took place in 605 (some years after S. Columba’s death),
according to Fordun at Kilkeran, the cell of S. Kieran, at Camp-
beltown, or, as others suppose, at Iona. S. Conval also preached

at the coronation of Kenneth I., Aidan’s grandson, in 621 ; and
we are told on the authority of Leslie, that he took the occasion
of the latter ceremonial sedulously to inculcate upon the ears and
the minds of his hearers the excellence of the Christian religion
and morals. We are further led to believe that our saint was an
author, and wrote a life of his master, S. Kentigern (Lib. I.) ; a
work ( Contra ritus Ethnicoi'um, Lib. I.), in opposition to Pagan
observances ; and a third {Ad clerum Scoticorum super Ecclesia
Statutis, Lib. I.), addressed to the Scottish clergy on the laws
of the Church. Transcripts of these would be made by his monks,
and we cannot but lament that his information regarding the
apostle of Glasgow, and the usages and laws of the people and
the Church at the time have not been preserved. We do not
know the date of his death. Several Scottish authorities 1 give it as
18th May, 612 ;* but this is not consistent with his taking part in

1 See Canon O' Hanlon's Lives of the Irish Saints.

2 In the Calendar of Scottish Saints t S. Conval'a day is sometimes given as the 18th May,
sometimes as the 28th September. It is noteworthy that on the former of these dates a fair with
horse-races was annually held at Pollok for centuries until 1838, when it was discontinued.

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the coronation of Kenneth in 621, and with another statement that
when this king “ came to the throne S. Conval first became con-
spicuous through his life of holiness.” 1 But the place of hie
sepulture appears to have been Inchinnan, for we learn from
Boece 8 that “ he was buryit in Inchinnan, nocht far frae Glas-
gow, where his relics, preserved in a famous monument, were held
in his day ’ (the early part of the sixteenth century), * in great
veneratioun of the pepill.’ " His stone there has been already
mentioned, and it was, “ as appears from the records of the burgh
of Paisley, the starting point for a horse-race for a silver bell,,
instituted by the bailies and council in the year 1628. According
to the late Mr. Motherwell, * the above stone, now called Argyll’s
stone, and marking the spot where the Earl of Argyll was
taken, was the pediment of a cross erected to the memory of S.
Convallus, near to the site of his cell, and which cross might at
once seem to indicate the ford, and remind the traveller to invoke
the saint’s protection, or to thank him for his preservation.” 4

1 It should be added that many prophetic announcements are mentioned as a further token of
his spiritual gifts.

* BtUenden's Boece, Lib. ix. 17, and Fordun to the same effect, Scotichron., Tom. I., p. 134.

8 See his notes to Renfrewshire Characters and Scenery , a Poem, Part I.

4 For various particulars stated in the text, as well as for authorities, see the Nev) Statistical
Account for Scotland , Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, pp. 128, 129, and notes.

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In many of the mediaeval records S. Conval is styled Arch-

deacon of Glasgow, and the first of that order ; and by his untiring
labours he merited to be honoured as a second apostle of that now
great city. It is recorded that he visited King Aidan of Dalriada,
and was welcomed by that prince with the highest honours . 1 The

purport of that visit was probably in part to secure the aid of that
king for the religious works in which he was engaged to the south
of the Clyde ; and we are further told that at that pious

monarch’s request he passed into the Pictish territory, and there
gained many souls to God. He also visited S. Columba, and seems
for a time to have been associated with that great saint in his
missionary labours. If he did not direct the inmates of the monast
tery at Iona, he set a noble example to the brethren in respec-

of life and discipline . 2

It remains to be stated that in the judgment of so high an
authority as Chalmers, who seems, by the way, to have regarded
Pollok as merely the ancient name of Eastwood, and their churches
consequently as identical — while S. Conval had some kind of re-
ligious foundation at Inchinnan, — “ the seat of his establishment was.

1 Camerarius, quoted in Stuart’s Sculptured Stone* in Scotland.

2 A full notice of S. Conval, to which on several points the writer is indebted, will be found in
Irish Saint* in Great Britain, by the Right Rev. Patrick F. Moran, D.D., Bishop of Ossory, later
of Kilkenny.

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probably, Pollok, rather than Inchinnan, for the church of Pollok
was certainly dedicated to Conval, and he was regarded as the
tutelar saint of the place.” The fact nevertheless remains that at
Inchinnan he not only preached the gospel, but died, and was buried,
and his name and shrine were for ages held in the utmost venera-
tion at that spot . 1

1 Chalmers’ Caledonia , YoL iii., pp. 834 and 849, 850 and notes and authorities.

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CHAPTEK II.

“Fbom the seventh to the twelfth century,” says Dr. Hill Burton,
“ almost total darkness prevails respecting Christianity in Scotland.
If such an enormous blank in the annals of a nation’s religion is
somewhat astounding, it is certainly a matter of interest that during
that long period of obscurity, Christianity lived on. And not only
the faith itself, not perhaps in great purity, but it managed to en-
graft itself with substantial temporal institutions, which gave it
solidity. In fact, when the church comes to light again, it is with
a hierarchy and organization of its own, the origin and foundation of
which have, however, defied inquiry.” It may be added that few
remains of art or of architecture, and no original MSS., have come
down to us, with scarcely a name, or a literary comppsition. In
this last respect, indeed, that age of our country, as in the case of
others, stands in striking contrast with the period which went
before, when there was quite a galaxy of saints, whose lives, written,
in certain cases, at no remote period after their deaths, give us such
a vivid picture of their work and its surroundings, and almost the
only notices which we possess of the civil history of the times. The

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period in question was that of Culdeeism, the form of religion in
Scotland as well as in Ireland which succeeded to their primeval
Christianity and preceded Romanism, but into whose forms of faith
and government it behoves us not here to enter. There can be no
doubt that in the course of time it suffered decadence, although it
was free from, and strenuously resisted various of the errors of the
Church of Rome ; and when Malcolm Canmore, under the influence
of his saintly consort, Queen Margaret, followed by their sons,
suppressed Culdeeism in favour of Romish orders, assimilating the
Scottish Church to the English, it involved a perfect revolution in
religion and society. Nor can we doubt that when the time of the
Reformation ultimately arrived, it took in great part the form of a
national revolt against foreign ecclesiastical sway, and a reverting to
principles which had from early times and for long conturies been
dear to the Scottish mind. Never let us forget that it is the one
Church of Scotland which has subsisted from its first establishment,
although under different phases. The early Celtic Church may
indeed be said to have existed for seven hundred years, say from
the time, to go back no earlier, than the date of S. Ninian, about
400, to Queen Margaret’s day, roughly speaking 1100. It was next
under Romish influence for four hundred and sixty years, till 1560;
while the same Church as Reformed has now subsisted for three
hundred and forty. But our national Church is not the creation

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of the Reformation. The old church was then re-fot'med or con-
stituted anew; and even our uncompromising Reformers accepted as
a matter of course the baptism and orders of their Romish pre-
decessors.

In time the wooden or wattled church in this parish would
give place to one of stone, but possibly not a vestige of it survives
unless, it may be, in its foundations in our burial-ground, and it
had to be rebuilt after the Reformation, as we shall show; while of
those that served its cure for centuries, as of its worshippers, scarce
a memorial remains.

When our parish emerges from the darkness into the dawning
light of history, there was a regularly constituted church here, for
it is mentioned, under the name of Hestwod, in the well-known
Bull of Pope Clement IV. of date 1265, con 6 r ruing to the Abbey
of Paisley the churches and lands which they already enjoyed. It
was thus already in their possession, by whomsoever or at whatever
date it was bestowed. The Church of Pollok is also mentioned,
though it is hard to say whether Upper or Nether Pollok is meant,
most probably the latter. The date of the Bull is almost exactly
contemporaneous with the appearance of a Maxwell as proprietor
of Nether Pollok through his marriage with the heiress at the time.

Eastwood and its chaplains or vicars are frequently mentioned
from this period. Gilesius or Giles of Eastwood appears as a

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witness to deeds, one of which is of date 1294, 1 but he is described
as a layman. In 1296 Giles of the Estwode swore fealty to
Edward I.* John Gray of Eastwood signs as witness to a deed in
1371 ; Christopher Promfret as vicar perpetual of Eastwood in 1408,*
and John Fenyson in 1469 and 1470. 4 John Goldsmit, Bachelor in
Degrees, is vicar of Eastwood and Cathcart later in the century,
and rector of the University of Glasgow in 1491. 5 Goldsmith
appears to have died in 1507, whereupon a very pretty ecclesi-
astical squabble arose as to the appointment to the perpetual vicar-
age of Eastwood, with which had been conjoined in his time that
of Cathcart. In the preface to the Liber Protocollorum of Glasgow,
it is stated that “on the 12th May, 1507, a controversy com-
menced, in which the celebrated Patrick Pantar, secretary of
James IV. and author of the earlier Epistolce Regum Scotorum was
involved. This ecclesiastic and Mr. Alexander Schaw, * principal
chanter of the Royal Chapel of Holyrood,’ were presented by the
Abbot and Convent of Paisley to the vacant vicarages of Eastwood
and Cathcart; and, under a mandate directed to the Primate of
Scotland, demanded collation to these benefices at the hands of
Archbishop Blacader. The prelate declined, and retaining the man-

1 Reg . Mon . Pas., pp. 96 and 237.

2 Chalmers' Caledonia , VoL III., p. 850, note. Prynne, 657.

» Reg. Mon. Pas., p. 339. * J&id., pp . 323, 347. * Ibid., p. 155.

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ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF EASTWOOD. 35

date, refused to re-deliver it. He was successful in his opposition,
for a month later Archibald Layng is named as ‘Vicar of East-
wood.’ Patrick Pantar was afterwards appointed Abbot of Cambus-
kenneth.”

On this subject there are many entries, the Archbishop assert-
ing his right of presentation “by virtue of his alternative granted
to him by Pope Innocent VIII. of happy memory," as against the
Abbot and Convent ; and exhibiting as well the jealousy with which
he regarded the interposition of the Archbishop of S. Andrews, the
Primate of Scotland, when an appeal was taken to him on the
subject. He urges that he had made his appointments in due
time, whereas the Abbey of Paisley had failed to do so till six
months had elapsed, whereby they fell from their right of pre-
sentation.

Layng, the successful presentee, in his position of rural dean,
exercised his functions with no sparing hand, and attended care-
fully to his own interests, as we find him more than once “ful-
minating" his censures and decrees of excommunication, and on one
occasion providing for his promotion to a rich benefice by exchange
or otherwise . 1

1 ProtocoUa, Nos. 362, 389, 644, etc., Liber ProtocoUorwn Glasgow, p. 16 ; and VoL II.,
221, et leg.

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In 1535, 1 Dominus Walter Dunselson, curate of Estwood, pro-
claimed the banns of marriage in the church there of John Maxwell
of Cowglen and the heiress of Pollok, a circumstance which shows
that Pollok wa3 now merged in Eastwood ; and as at this time
James Houston was sub-dean of Glasgow and vicar of Eastwood,
Dunselson was evidently his curate. Houston succeeded Roland
Blackadder as sub-dean in 1527. He was the founder of the church
of “ the Lady Virgin Mary of Loretto and S. Anne, her mother,”
which was situated on the spot now occupied by the church of
S. Mary, Tron, Glasgow. The original document of 1525, in which
Gavin Dunbar, Archbishop of Glasgow, gave his consent to this
foundation by Master James Houston, is, with the episcopal seal,
in excellent preservation, in the archives of the city of Glasgow.
Houston was also a Rector of Glasgow University in 1534, and
filled the office by successive re-elections, until 1541. He died as
vicar-general of the See about 1551, and was buried within his
own collegiate church. * We have no further notices till after the
Reformation, which, as is well known, was ratified in 1560.

In the Rental of the Abbey of Paisley in 1561, mention is made
of the Chantor’s lands at the Kirk stile of Eastwood, which, there-

1 At this date Eastwood seems to have been an important charge, as we find that a vicar and
curate were attached to it, the former of whom was a sub-deacon, or deacon of Glasgow,

2 Articles and Correspondence in the Glasgow Herald , June, 1894.

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fore, went to maintain the musical service in the Abbey, to the
loss of that in the parish from which they were derived.

I have mentioned some of those who served in the church here
centuries ago, but they have gone from sight, leaving not a memory
behind — a name only, and a handful of indistinguishable dust.
They may have been lights in their day ; they certainly must have
exercised an influence, yet who can trace it ? But there was one, a
native of this parish, who in early life no doubt often served at its
altar, of whom more is known, and who merits a kindly notice at
our hands. This was Robert Maxwell, a member of the family of
Pollok, born about 1470, and who managed the estates for many
years during the minority of successive proprietors, with great credit
to himself, and equal advantage to the interests of all con-
cerned. 1 He added a tower to the old castle on the banks of the
Cart, which indeed he almost rebuilt. He became Rector of Tar-

bolton ; and as the Stewarts of Damley were the patrons of that

living, his appointment was no doubt a friendly act on the part of

that family, the near neighbours of the Maxwells of Pollok. Its

rector was a prebend or canon of the Cathedral of Glasgow, and,
according to M'TJre, Mr. Maxwell was at the same time chancellor
of the see of Moray, while, according to others, he was provost of a

i He is called in the protocols “ the principal warden of the lands of Nethir Pollok.’*

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Collegiate Church at Dumbarton. Then in 1526 he was appointed
Bishop of Orkney, an office which he held with marked benefit to
the inhabitants of that remote diocese till his death in 1540. He
wrought various improvements upon the stately Cathedral of S.
Magnus at Kirkwall, provided carved stalls for the choir, and placed
in the tower a set of four very fine bells, with inscriptions bearing
his name ; bells which are still in use, and are greatly prized by the
Orcadians. The bells were cast by one Borthwick, who was employed
in founding artillery in Edinburgh Castle. It is said that the
sound of the great bourdon could be heard in Caithness, booming
across the stormy strait. His silver tankard is preserved at Pollok,
and is considered by some to be one of the oldest pieces of silver
plate in Scotland, and, possibly, before the Bishop’s time, in use by
Norwegian magnates.

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CHAPTER III.

We have now reached the period of the Reformation of 1560, of which
great event, as affecting this parish, we have, of course, no direct
narrative. It would almost seem, however, contrary to the effect of its
operation in Paisley, where the old faith for many a year retained a
lingering hold on the hearts of the inhabitants, as if Eastwood took
a leading place among surrounding parishes in an opposite direction,
possibly through the adhesion of our chief family, although they were
leading supporters of the unfortunate Queen ; and, doubtless, in obedience
to her summons, still preserved at Pollok, they sent a company to
uphold her cause on the fatal field of Langside in this immediate
neighbourhood. For the supply of charges ministers were, of course,
at first scarce, but “ Eistwod ” not only secured a man of mark and
scholarship, but, while it was his headquarters, he had also put under
his charge “Ruthirglen and Cathcart.” In the circumstances of the
time, an office of reader was constituted, the duty of those holding
it being the reading in the churches of the Holy Scriptures, and the
Service in the Book of Common Order, commonly called John Knox’s
Liturgy, and which was more or less in use in the Reformed Church

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for the greater part of a century from this date. From the Register
of Ministers and Readers of date 1574, we find that Mr. Thomas Jak
(Latine Jacchaeus), was the first Protestant minister of these parishes,
with a stipend of £66 13s. 4d., Scots, of course, and the kirk lands
here ; and his “ reidare ” at Eastwood, Thomas Knox, who, “ in respect
he was ane exhorter of auld, was to be pait out of the thrid of the
Abbay of Paislay £26 13s. 4d,” while “Archibald Eglintoun, reidare
at Ruthirglen,” and “ Matthew Wylie, reidare at Cathcart,” were
each to have £16, and the kirk lands of these parishes. 1 It would
indeed appear that the services in this church were first supplied by
James Carruthers, exhorter, in 1567, who was, however, “deposit”
in November, 1569, for what cause we do not know, as we are other-
wise ignorant of his history.

Mr. Jak, the date of whose birth is unknown, was presented to
the vicarage by James VI. on 1st September, 1570. He seems, as
will appear from a subsequent extract, to have been well connected,
but nothing is known as to his parentage, or as to his appointment
to the Grammar School. He had been preceptor to Principal Rollok,
a celebrated divine of the Reformation period — the first, and for a
time the sole professor in the University of Edinburgh, as he was
also its Principal. 2 Jack was later master of the Grammar School of

1 Miscellany of the Wodrow Society, Vol. I., p. 381.

* In the verses of Principal Rollok, Jack is described as “ preceptor ille olim meus Jackseos.”

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Glasgow, and it was probably his zeal for the Reformed faith which
led him to accept such an arduous and poorly- requited charge of
several parishes. Carmunnock and Cambuslang were also at one time
under his care, but these last apparently while he was still con-
nected with tbe Grammar School. 1 “ He was also quaestor of the
University in 1577 , in which year he presented to its library the
works of Ambrose and Gregory. He was a member of the
Assemblies of April, 1581 , June, 1582 , and August, 1590 , and was
one of the Commissioners appointed by the Council, 6th March, 1589 ,
for the preservation of true religion in the bounds of Lennox and
Renfrew. At some date before 1591 , he had been imprisoned along
with Mr. Patrick Melvile and others.”

Apart from this, and at a considerably earlier date, Mr. Jak
suffered no little molestation and loss by an effort on the part of
“ Robert, Lord Sympill,” to oust him from the charge, into which he,
“ regairding nather our Soverane Lord nor the Kirk of God,”
“ intrusit Sir Johne Hamiltoun, a Papist preist, be the pretendit
rycht the said lord allegis him to have as Abbot of Paslay, and so

1 There had been a Grammar School in Glasgow from an early period of the fourteenth cen-
tury. It depended immediately upon the Cathedral, and was under the control of the chancellor.
It also continued to be a distinct establishment after the foundation of the University. Jack,
after his appointment to Eastwood, continued to maintain a close correspondence with its masters,
and particularly with Melville, of whose services to the literature of Scotland he had the highest
opinion. He even seems to have been succeeded in the School by Patrick Sharp, his grandson,
subsequently mentioned in the text. (M‘Crie’s Life of Mehnlle ).

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has bereft the said Maister Thomas of the dewiteis of his said
vicarage evil- sen the day and dait of his said gift thairof ; cou-
tinewalie hoisting and schoring him that gif he insistit to persew his
rycht, he has avowit to have his lyff alsu.” Jak found it neceesary
to appeal to the Lords of the Privy Council, and their judgment in
the case is set forth in a minute of date 6th May, 1573, quoted in
the Archaeological and Historical Collections relating to the County of
Renfrew ,* Yol. II., p. 110. The judgment was to the effect that the
said Lord and Sir John Hamiltoun should “ personalie compeir befoir
my Lord Regentis Grace and the Lordis of Sacreit Counsals at ane
certain day. . . . Quhilkis being diverse tymes callit, and the

saidis personis not compearand, my Lord Regentis Grace, with avise
of the said Lordis, ordainis latters to be direct to denunce the saidis
Robert Lord Sempill and Sir Johnne Hamiltoun our Soverane Lordis
rebellis, and put thame to the home, and to escheit,” etc. 1 2

Among other circumstances connected with this parish in rela-
tion to Mr. Jack, it may be mentioned that the Countess of Hugh,
third Earl of Eglintou, left a legacy of 200 merks to the “pure
depauperit hansel elders of Eistwade, to be distributit to thame, be
avise of Mr. Thomas Jack, minister thairof, and Mr. Johnne Reid,

1 Paisley : Alexander Gardner, 1800.

2 Tin Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, Yol. II., pp. 229, 30.

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factors of Eistwade.” This shows the continued connection with, and
interest in the parish on the part of the Eglinton family.

His death took place in 1598, after a ministry of twenty-eight years.
** His utencils, etc., were estimat at lxvj li xiiij s iiij d, and the In-
ventar and dettis uj m iij li xvij s iiij d. He left all his English
books to Jane Maxwell, his Oy, and the Latin and Greek buikis to
be dividit, two part to Mr. Gabriel Maxwell, his oy, and one part to
Mr. Sharp, his oy, at the direction of Mr. Patrick Sharp (Principal),
and Mr. George Maxwell (minister of Mearns) ; and Marlorat on the
New Testament to the Presbytery of Paisley.” Euphame Wylie, his
widow, died in 1608. He had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married
Mr. Patrick Sharp, principal of the University of Glasgow. 1 He pub-
lished a poem in Latin, Onomasticon Poeticum ; sive pro priorum
■quibus in suis monumentis usi sunt veteres Poetae, brevis de-
scriptio Poetica, Edinburgh Excudebat Robertus Waldegraue, Typo-
graphy Regiac Maiestatis, 1592. Principal Sharp had been
previously minister of Govan. Gabriel Maxwell, after being reader
at Paisley and Inchinnan, was presented to the latter vicarage, and
died in 1621.* It is a small book of 150 pages, and it is dated
Ex sylva vulgo dicta orientals. It may be described as a versi-

1 Euphame Wylie, his umquhil spouse, leaves a legacy to James Scharp, her oy, her only
•executor and intromitter. — (M'Crie’s Lift of Melville.)

8 For the above particulars, and much minute information regarding subsequent incumbents,
see Dr. Hew Scott’s Fasii Ecclesicr Scoticanae .

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fied topographical dictionary of the localities of classical poetry,
expressing in a brief sentence, seldom exceeding a couple of lines,
some characteristic which may remind the student of the subject of
his readings. His purpose did not admit of much elegance of treat-
ment, and the chief merit of the author will be found to be in the
perseverance which had amassed so many references to matters of
classical research.

In the dedication, which is addressed to James, eldest son of
Claud Hamilton, commendator of Paisley, a pupil of the author,
Jack complacently mentions that he had been induced to publish by
the recommendation of George Buchanan and Andrew Melville, and
that the former had revised the work, and submitted to a counter
review of works of his own . 1 The dedication is in the following
terms : — Magnae spci adolcscenti Jacobo Hamiltonio Claudii paslet-
cnsis Domini jilio Ilaereditalis iure natu maxima. In the course
of the same he commends Gabriel Maxwell to young Hamilton in
the following terms : — (Jabrielem Maxvellum nepatem menm, qui
mihi unici Jilii locus est, in gravascente hoc nostra (state tuo com-
mendo palncinio. This Gabriel appears to have been later minister
of Incbinnan, as is noted above.

1 Chambers* Scottish Biographical Dictionary.

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Mr. Jack’s daughter Elizabeth appears to have been twice married,
and both the oys of the name of Maxwell, and that one of the name
of Sharpe were her children, for documents among the Pollok papers
show that she was first the wife of Walter Maxwell of Cowglen, 1 of
whom, by the way, it is recorded that he had left him by his brother
George, “ ane pair of gray breikis of the best sort of Scottis gray,
a gray gown, ane pair of watt ledder new schone, four sarkis,” and
many other articles. He died before 11th June, 1593, and by his
will appointed his wife Elizabeth to intermit with his books “ to the
weell of the bairns.”

Before her marriage with Maxwell, she had an experience of a
rough kind of wooing not uncommon in these days. There is pre-
served a complaint by John, fifth Earl of Athole, addressed to the
laird of Minto, and accusing the kinsman of the latter, Ninian
Stewart, and his “ complices,” of invading the manse, “ reiving and
taking away Elizabeth, the dochter of the Earl’s cousing, Thomas
Jack, Wiccar of Eastwood, in wiolent maner,” “ striking of him and
his wyf in their awin hows,” “causing them to abyd continewallie in
his hows for fear of his life,” as also “persewing his sone-in-law and
his brethir, and hurting some of them on the calsay of Glasgow.”

1 Both Cowglen and Cowhill were properties held by branches of the Pollok family , and the
latter is probably to be identified with a place described in the sixteenth century as the Mount
house, and with the site of the present residence there, which is still by old people called “ the
Mount.”

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Another racy old document, a Declaration by Mr. David Wemyss,
minister of Glasgow and others, bears that “ upon the six day of
October last by past after the said Elizabeth was set at libertie,
and brocht to her father’s house, we convenit at the Colledge Hall,
with sundrie vther gentlemen of the countrey at the desyir of
the said Niniane 'and his father, and travelit to sie gif we culd
perswade the said Elizabeth, with the consent of her said parentis,
to mary the said Niniane, and perswadit her father, gif his dochter
wold consent to mary the said Niniane, he suld not be for against
the sam. Ypon the quhilk motive, ane pairt of ws. be mutual con-
sent of parteis, was sent to the said Mr. Thomas’ hous, quhair the
said Elizabeth reraainit, and vsit such kynde of perswasive reasonis
as was possible to move hir to consent to the said Niniane’s
petition ; quha on na wayis wald consent thairto. Thairaftir, sup-
posing the said Niniane micht perswad hir mare nor we, we causit
the 8 d Niniane and Elizabeth enter the chalmer of dais at the
Colledge Hall end, quhair the saidis Niniane and Elizabeth conferitt
be the space of ane quartour houre or mare ; and in end, quhau
the said Elizabeth com in all our presens, sche affirmit that sche
wald never mary the said Niniane, if thair war no mo. man in the
world to be gottiu, seeing he had laborit so far as in him lay to
dishonour hir, and to put so sair trubill to hir parentis liartis as be
had done. Eftir quhai’s refusal, the said Niniane, being stomachit

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and angrie, brustit forth with sum hard wordis agains the said
Elizabethis fathir, avowing in all our presens that he suld have his

lyf.”\

It was in Mr. Jak’s time, and through his influence that a new
church was built in this parish to supply the place of the pre-Reformation
church ; and his was the last which had its historic site in the
ancient burial-ground. The evidence of this is found in the preserva-
tion of its memorial stone, which is a tablet of some three to four
feet in length, by fifteen inches in depth, and which bears the
following inscription in large, raised, and very distinct old English
or Gothic characters : — Ecclesias {sic) Dei me construendam curauit,
Tho. Jakaem, 1577 . * The stone was preserved at the old manse,
but in an unroofed outside wall, and when the house ceased to be
the manse, and its speedy removal was inevitable, it was deemed
better to have it secured in the wall of the new manse, where it
now stands in a conspicuous but sheltered position. It might have
been better, and it may still be practicable, to have it placed in the
wall of the only building in the burial ground which is a survival of
that old church. Certain other stones lie at the manse and at
the new church which belonged to that edifice. Two, which form

1 See Pollok Papers, by Sir William Fraser.

* It certainly reads like ccdesia, but the illiteracy of stone cutters is prorerbial.

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the top of a small Gothic window, were preserved in the boundary
wall of the church removed in 1862, and two others were found in
the foundation of that church when it was taken down. Of these,
one is a massive stone which had formed part of an arch ; the
other is the fluted lintel of a door bearing date 1G06, of which more
anon.

This church of 1577 was doubtless of Gothic architecture, for no
other style, though debased, had £hen been thought of for ecclesi-
astical purposes ; but it was, like the churches in this and other
districts of the time, an imperfect cross in form, possessing a nave
and transepts, but no chancel or choir. This omission was, from the
period of the Reformation till recently, a great defect in our Scottish
churches, there being thus no portion set apart for the more sacred
offices of our religion, and even on aesthetic grounds a mistake, as
presenting no vista to the eye, and showing to the congregation
only a blank dead wall, broken by nothing more ornamental than an
ugly pulpit with its stairs, and a lateran. In this church too, like
others, there was no respect paid to orientation. The prior church
would doubtless have the altar in the east end, but in this the
pulpit and the Communion table were on the north side (with a
door admitting to them, and some, myself among the number, can
remember the corresponding door in the churchyard wall, by which
the minister passed on his way from the manse), while transepts ran

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to the east and west, and a nave, still standing, to the south.
That this was its plau is evident from an old map of the Pollok
estate, still in existence, from the foundation courses found when the
ground is opened for interments, and from frequent references to the
building in the records of the Presbytery. It is the belief of the
writer that the prior church was cruciform, and that the burial
vault formed its south transept. No doubt it had been the family
burial place from a much earlier date, and it would on this account
be carefully preserved, and embodied in the new church at its re-
building ; its substructure, therefore, may be of unknown antiquity.
The present building has been outwardly cased in stone, and, on looking
within, it can be observed that the lower part of the walls is thicker
than the upper, indicating a second and later course of masonry;
while the wall on the north side, put up to complete the enclosure
of the vault when the church was taken down, is manifestly of a
later date, as the nature of its basement shows.

This aisle was clearly, as in various other churches of the time,

a burial vault below, with the family seat above, facing the pulpit.

In a minute of a meeting of Heritors in 1732, there is an exact

measurement of the area of the church, in all its parts, with a

view to partition among the Heritors, and as the divisible subject

was not found sufficient, it was unanimously agreed to build a

“loft” in the east end, similar to one already existing in the

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opposite transept. The portions assigned to the Duke of Montrose
for Darnley, to the Earl of Eglinton for Eastwood, to John Govan
of Mains, to Robert Sanders of Auldhouse, as representing the
Merchant’s House of Glasgow, and to Sir John Maxwell of Pollok,
are severally designated, with the space for the pulpit and Com-
munion Table, for the passages, etc., and one elsewhere described
as an access for “ the banqueting people ; ” and from this, and
various minutes in the Session Book of seats let to parishioners, it
would be possible to construct an exact ground plan of the church,
and to show the very seats occupied in the course of that century
by the Tassies, and Deans, and Finlays, and Kings, and Burn-
sides, and Kyles, and Jacksons of the day.

There is reference both in these, and in notices of lairs in the
churchyard, to an outside stair leading up to Sir John Maxwell’s

gallery, and there was a door beneath it admitting to the lower

part of the church at this aisle. The doorstep may still be seen
in the wall immediately behind Mr. Logan’s tombstone, and the
old lintel which has been mentioned as lying at the manse is,
from its size, manifestly that of this very door. Its fluting cor-
responds- to that on the entrance to the vault, and hence it would
probably be at its date, 1606 , that the building would be encased,

some thirty years after Jak’s church was built. It is clear that

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that caaing had been broken for the admission of Pardovan’s
monument a century later.

This church of which I speak served the parish for two

hundred' years, and it was it in which Wodrow and various
eminent men ministered. As the one which followed it, on the
site of the present, only stood for eighty years, there were
memories, even to my knowledge, which extended over these four

score years, back to the old one. I knew an aged man,' by name
M‘Howat, who in his youth had carted stones for the building of
the church of 1782, and whose graudfather, if I recollect aright, had
been precentor under Wodrow. But still more remarkable to relate,
there was an interesting old man, William M’Laren, who lived to the
age of ninety, and who remembered being taken in his childhood by his
father to the old church in the burial ground, who lived through all
the period of the intermediate church, and was present at the dedica-
tion services of the present in 1863, when, too, he was able to read
the Bible without the aid of glasses. His childish memoiy recalled
that church as being “ a’ hung roond wi’ pictures,” which can only
have been the emblazonment of the arms of the noble families on the
panels of the galleries which were appropriated to them. I have also
heard a recollection on the part of some old person, of Sir James
Maxwell walking to the church over the opposite hill, and crossing

the bum by stepping stones, the bell dutifully waiting for the

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approach of the respected ruling Elder. The “ bell end of the kirk,”
was the eastern gable, that nearest the public road.

Of the next two ministers very little indeed is known, and for
that little we are indebted, as in other matters, to the unwearied
researches of the late Dr. Hew Scott of Anstruther preserved in his
Fasti Ecclesice Scoticance.

Mr. John Gibson was promoted from being Regent in the Uni-
versity of Glasgow. He was proposed for Carmunnock in 1597,
nominated to this charge in 1598, and settled in 1599. He was
presented to Eckford in the same year, but the translation does not
seem to have been proceeded with.

Next, Mr. William Wallace, son of William Wallace of John-
stoun, who attained his degree at the University of Glasgow in 1599.
He was proposed for Leinzie, the old name of the parish of Kirkin-
tilloch, in 1600, but he refused the invitation. We only further

know of him that he died in December, 1617, aged about 39. He
ordained “his buiks to be sauld altogidder to the use of his sone,”
who was probably a child. He also directed his widow, Isobell,
daughter of Mr. James Grey, minister of Colmonell, to advise with
Mr. James Grey, minister of Lowdoun, presumably her brother, as to
her affairs. He had a daughter, Margaret, who at the age of 85,
and reduced to great helplessness, was strongly recommended for
charity.

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CHAPTER IV.

The next incumbent, the fourth from the Reformation, is one who,
both from his family connection, and his checkered personal history
in the troublous days in which his lot was cast, must awaken
sympathetic interest. He was Mr. John Maxwell, eldest son of
George Maxwell, minister of Meams — “a parish of which (as of this)
his ancestors had been chief proprietors ” — of whom, the father, a word
must first he said. He was the son of John Maxwell of Auldhouse,
and is himself described as of the same. He was settled at Neilston
in 1593, and translated to Mearns in the following year. He
seems, so far, to have made Auldhouse his home, for we find that
he was ordained by the Presbytery, 20th August, 1635, to reside
in his parish that he may visit the sick, and perform the other in-
cumbent duties. It may be that in accepting a parochial charge in
addition to the responsibilities of his estate, it was in order to
serve the church, as far as he could, in days when competent
ministers were not readily to be found. We find him contribut-
ing forty merks towards rebuilding the Library of the University

of Glasgow in 1632, and we know that the date of his death

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was 1648. He married (1) Janet, daughter of John Miller of

Newton, and had tv son, John, the above-named minister of East-
wood, who was served heir to his father, 16th June, 1649, and
whose descendants represent the ancient families of Pollok and
Keir ; (2) Jean, daughter of William Mure of Glanderston, and

had by her, who died after 8th June, 1621, tv son William,

progenitor of the family of Heron Maxwell, Baronets of Spring-
kell ; (3) Janet, daughter of Douglas of Waterside, who

survived him, and by whom he had five more sons, George, Hew
(ancestor of the family of Dalswinton), Gabriel, David, and Robert.
Besides these he had another son, Mr. James, who studied for the

Church, and was presented by Charles I. to the Eirks of Holy-

wood and Keir, 11th February, 1633, though he was not settled
there. Thus far the minister of Mearns.

To return to John, who was his eldest son, laureated at
the University of Glasgow in 1609, and settled at Eastwood
after Mr. Wallace’s death. He was recommended to the Arch-
bishop by the Presbytery, 27th March, 1628, for Paisley (the
Abbey), but instead was translated to the Parsonage of Glasgow,
the High Church, in, according to Cleland, 1629. Though cousin to
Sir John Maxwell of Pollok, it is stated that, probably on account
of the unsettled state of Church affairs, he had served in this parish
for three years “ but (without) onie stipend.”

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In Glasgow Mr. Maxwell had for his charge the west quarter
of the city, although it would now be considered pretty far east.
He was a member of the Commission for the maintenance of
Church Discipline in 1634; was elected Dean of Faculty of the
University in 1632, and Lord Rector in 1636 ; and in the follow-
ing year bis friends had hopes that he would be promoted to the
Bishopric of the Isles. But meantime the famous Assembly of 1638
was held at Glasgow, in which the principles of the Covenanting
party obtained such a signal victory ; and in the unsparing over-
throw of the Bishops, and of those who would not go all lengths in
support of the Covenants, he was deposed 1st May, 1639, for declining
the jurisdiction of this most decidedly oppressive Assembly. Baillie in
his “Letters,” that most curious book, giving such a picture of the
times, and such a vivid description of the Assembly in its meetings
in the Cathedral, says of Mr. Maxwell, whom he describes as a non-
Covenanter, “Mr. John Maxwell (then, be it remembered, minister of
the High Church, in which the Assembly met) refused to lend his
pulpit to any so long as the Commissioner staid, and craved of his
Grace that none might come there but himself. So for the two first
Sundays, before and after noon, Mr. John took the High Church, and
preached after his fashion, nothing to the matter in hand, so ambigu-
ously that himself knew best to which side he inclined.”

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Maxwell was evidently a moderate man, and we can readily con-
ceive of such, true-hearted Presbyterians, who yet disapproved of the
extreme measures of the Covenanting party ; but to such in these fiery
days no mercy was shown. However much we are indebted to the
struggles and trials of the Covenanters for our civil and religious
liberty, that toleration which afterwards came as a fruit of the Revolu-
tion, had no place in their system, and opposition to their policy was put
down with a strong hand. Hence the sufferings of one who yet, as
the sequel will show, finished his course in the ministry of the Church
of Scotland. Finding his country, and even his paternal home at
Auldbouse, too hot for him, and desiring to serve his Master where
he might do so in peace, he passed to Ireland, and through the
instrumentality of James, Viscount Claneboy, was made parson of
Willyleagh, 1 where he continued till 1643, when, on account of
the rebellion in that country, he was again constrained to return
to Scotland, and, after residing for a time at Paisley, having
modified his dislike to the Covenant, he was admitted to the
charge of Eastwood once more. We defer the latter part of his
history till we have noticed, that, after his removal to Glasgow,

1 For a statement of the relation which subsisted at this period between the Churches of
Scotland and Ireland, see The Church of Scotland , Past and Present : article on the Ritual of
the Church, by Thomas Leishman, D.D., Vol. v., p. 377.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF EASTWOOD.

Mr. Hew Blair was in 1630 appointed to this parish. He

was son of Hew Blair * Commissary of Hamilton, graduated at the
University of Glasgow in 1622, presented to Eastwood by James,
Earl of Abercom , 1 and ordained on first April of this year. We
find that he also subscribed forty inerks towards the erection of
the University Library. He was run after by various parishes, and
was a man of some mark. He was presented by his patron to
Kilpatrick in 1639, a gift which, however, he declined. He

was sought for Glasgow (Black I'l-iars Church), amidst great conten-
tion in 1641, but neither was this appointment carried into effect;
and he was finally translated to the Church of S. Mary’s, Tron, in
1643. There he had, like his predecessor, charge of the West
Quarter till 1648, of the East in the three following years, and of
the North from 1652. Here too, as when at Eastwood, he was
twice presented to Kilpatrick by William, Lord Cochrane of Dun-
donald, but declined both calls. The districts and congregations

in Glasgow seem then to have been altered and removed as suited
convenience, and his quarter was appointed in 1649 to meet for
worship in the Blackfriars. He joined the party of the Resolu-
tioners in 1651, conformed to Episcopacy in 1662 — be alone, with

1 The patronage of this church and parish seems to have been at different dates, subse-
quently to the dissolution of Paisley Abbey, in various hands. It was finally acquired by Sir
John Maxwell in 1743 from the trustees of the Earl of Dundonald.

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George Young of Glasgow, and Gabriel Cunningham of Kilsyth, in
that then small Presbytery, taking this step under Charles If.
He died in the following year, in the sixty-second of his age, and
the thirty-third of his ministry. He married Mary Muir, and had
two sons, Mr. Hew, minister of Rutherglen, and John, his executor.
He was the author of A Sermon on the King’s Return, 1660, 4to,
and of God’s Sovereignty, His Majesttfs Supremacy, a sermon
preached before the Scots Parliament; Glasgow, 1661.

To return to Maxwell. In 1645, two years after Mr. Blair
had been translated to Glasgow, and sixteen eventful years after
he had been similarly removed, he was again, as has been said,
settled in Eastwood, having been presented by John, Earl of
Lauderdale ; but a jealous suspicion of him in the minds of
the opposing party continued to molest him. He had been de-
sired in 1642 to subscribe the National Covenant, and after his
return to Scotland he was complained against for preaching and
administering ordinances at Paisley, in the absence of and without
invitation from the minister, “ in ignorance of his condition.” He
appears to have been afflicted with gout, and altogether to have
had little enjoyment of his position. The Records of the Presby-
tery bear that on 21st March, 1650, “ Ane Ire come from Mr.
John Maxwell, Minist: at Eastwood, regruiting his long absence
from y® prbie through infirmitie, and desyring that in respect of

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y® apparent continewance y r of, ye inhabilitie of his body, and y®
inlargement of y® parocbe of Eastwood by y* addition of partes of
y* parish of Paisley y r to, be consavit many dewties of y® ministerial!
charge will be left undischarged by him, and that y* people are
in a very desolate condition, and y T fowr supplicatit a colleague to
be joyned with him, who may undergoe y® greatest burden of
y® charge, and he submitted his stipend in whole to be disposed
upon be y® pre w ® as they think fitt.” It may be stated that
report had just been made to the Presbytery that the Commission
for the Plantation of Kirks had “ dismembered all y® lands belong-
ing to ye Laird of Nether Pollok, and y° Duke of Lennox, and
Thomas Dunlop of Househill within y® parish of Paisley lying
beyond y® water of Lavern on y® east and south syd y r off from
y® parish of Paisley, and had added y* same to y® parish of East-
wood.” At the next meeting Mr. Maxwell renewed his request, in
which the Presbytery concurred, but “ because of y® scarcity of
men, and y® vacancy of places, and y* y® stipend of Eastwood was
but mean, and could not well admit of a division, they did appoint
y® fors d Mr. John Maxwell sould have y® haill stipend of 1650,
and y r after it sould be wholly given for y® use of ane intrant,
and it was decemit to y® Session that there was there a place
vacand for ane minister, and they are appointed to sett y r eyis
upon some fitt man for y® charge.”

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They were not, however, very successful in their search, for
on “9 Jan., 1651, compeared y® proclmers of Eastwood regraiting
y* they had long been® w*out doctrine and discipline, and y* they
had been using meanes to have a minist: among them, but y®
consaivit that Mr. John Maxwell his being there did much lye in
y r waye and stop any man’s entry to y® charge. Mr. John
Maxwell being prnt. declaired he sould not be any impediment,

but sould by all means pswaid any fitt man for y® charge.”

Renewed intimations of the vacancy were accordingly made. We
also find that on 6th November of the same year Commission was
given to John Govan of Mains to uplift the first end of the

stipend, and to repair the manse, “ which being done to y° pr w ®’®
satisfaction, and report made y r ofF, they appoint y° remainder of y°
stipend to be given to Mr. Jo" Maxwell, laitlie serving y° cure,
and appoint y® s d John Govan of Mains to be accountabill to y®
prbrie.” After much further procedure, it was found that on

account of great sums of money expended by Mr. John Maxwell
on the manse, 620 merks Scots money should be refunded to him.

It is worthy of notice as an illustration of contemporary
events that, at one of the above-mentioned meetings, a solemn
thanksgiving for the overthrow of James Graham, (they do not
give their gallant but unfortunate countryman his title of Marquis
of Montrose), “ according to appW of y® commission, was fixed for

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Wednesday come 8 days;” and the new Paraphrases of the
Psalms in Metre from the Commission on Assembly, was distri-
buted among the brethren. This refers to the present metrical
version, which took the place of the old Scottish version after the
then recent Westminster Assembly. In Mr. Maxwell’s later
ministry at Eastwood, the change had taken place from our old
Scottish Standards and Liturgy to the Westminster Confession,
Catechism, and Directory, and the narrower Puritanism of England
had denationalised much in our forms of faith and worship.
The year before, his royal master’s blood had flowed on the
scaffold at Whitehall ; and Cromwell, after routing the Scottish
army at Dunbar, was in Glasgow bullying our clergy ; while — it
is a mere local circumstance, but a persistent tradition — his sumpter
mules were pastured in the woods of this parish at Robslea, where
their shoes have frequently been turned up by the plough.

In reference to Mr. Maxwell’s retirement, there is evidence
that he demitted by the advice of his eldest son, who had in
1647 succeeded to the estate of Pollok by a settlement, whereby
the family of Auldhouse, a collateral branch, came into the pos-
session of the principal estate. The fact that it was conveyed to
the son in his father’s lifetime has been explained by the pecuniary
difficulties of the latter ; and if we consider that in early life he
laboured without stipend, that throughout his whole career he

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was the sport of fortune, and that he only succeeded to the

estate of Auldhouse, such as it was, late in life, his circumstances
need cause no surprise. He might have been elevated to a bishopric
at the Restoration in 1661, but he declined on account of his
age, and died about 1666, at the age of seventy-seven. He had

married in 1621, Elizabeth, second daughter of James Stewart,
tutor of Blackhall, who died in 1622, leaving two sons, Mr.

George, who took orders in the Episcopal Church of Ireland, got
a conveyance of the. estate of Nether Pollok, was created a knight
by Charles II., and died in 1677, his son succeeding him in the

estate ; and Zacharias, of Blawarthill, whose descendants also sub-
sequently succeeded, and are represented in the present Baronet.

In this connection a very interesting stone at Auldhouse must
be mentioned. It forms the lintel over the fireplace of an apart-
ment now used as the kitchen, and bearing the following inscrip-
tion very distinctly cut in large Roman characters : —

“ The bodio for the saul was framed,

This house the bodie for,

In Heaven for both any place is named,

In bliss my God t’ador.”

1631.

The sentiment is more pious than the versification is poetic, the
production evidently of the Minister of Mearns, and he one who
was more used to compose sermons than to write verse. But it

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contains manifest allusion to the building of the house ; and the
addition of this block with its crow-step gable to the original
and ancient castellated tower, to the . south of which it stands,
was his work at that date, and just four years before he was
instructed by the Presbytery to reside in his parish. He may

have found his manse in a ruinous state in those disordered times,
and his patrimonial manor house, lying so pleasantly to the sun,
with the surrounding trees, some of them probably planted by him-
self, a more desirable home than the manse on the edge of Mearns
Muir.

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CHAPTER V.

Mr. Maxwell was succeeded by Mr. Hugh Smith, who was probably
a native of the county, for he was licensed at Paisley, 19th February,
1652. The following extract from the proceedings of the Presbytery
on that day evinces the lawless state of this province under Crom-
well. It reads like a page from Woodstock : —

“ This day some of y® inglische soldiers quartered in Paisley
under y® comand of Captaine robesone came in upon y® prbie
in a furious, tumultuous, and violent waye, with many horrid oaths
and execrations, menacing and threatening them for keeping courtie,
and commanding them to ryse ; and y'after, being in a calm and
modest waye dealt with, they pswaidit to withdraw. And report
being made by Mr. Alex* Dunlope of y® tumultuous behaviour of
some of y r said inglische sojouris before ye Sessioun of Paslay and
of y r insolent and disorderlie carriage in y® face of y c congregation
of Paisley upon y® Lord’s day, the Prbie appointed the Mode-
rator and y® s d Mr. Alex* Dunlop to represent to y r comander in

Paslaye.”

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In the month immediately after being licensed, the parishioners
both of Kilmalcolm and of Eastwood requested that Mr. Smith
might be appointed to preach in the vacant pulpits. This was
done, and at the following meeting “ the parishioners of Eastwood
compearing, having given to y® s d Mr. Hew a heartie and har-
monious call, inviting him to be their minister, and did supplicat
that y® prbie would concur with them in y* said call and invita-
tion, the prbie duly considering y® same concurred y'in, and
appointed his trialls.” The call having been further pressed by
the people on account of their distress and the distraction of the
times, he was ordained on 27th May, which was kept as a day
of solemn fasting and humiliation, one minister lecturing and another
preaching ; and after the induction, a third preaching in the afternoon.
In the month following a fast was ordered for the great fire which
occurred at this time in Glasgow, one of which there are various
accounts, as well as for the great drought over the country. Con-
tributions for the sufferers by the fire were afterwards raised. The
manse here was afterwards visited and repaired.

It may be mentioned that the elder brother of Mr. Hew
Smith, Mr. William, who took his degree in 1639, and had been
schoolmaster of Irvine, was ordained Minister of Largs in 1644,
and died by the ptestilenco in September, 1647, aged about twenty-
eight. He was somewhat lame in one of his feet, but is said in

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the quaint language of the day to have been “ a choice man for
piety,” who had “ an excellent gift of preaching,” and was “ most
taking with the people.” The disease was caught whilst visiting
his parishioners. In compliance with his wishes (such is one version
of the tradition), he was buried in the valley of the Noddle, about
two miles from Largs, and hard by the farmhouse of Middletown,
the place of his death. What are believed to be the hollies which
mark his chosen resting place, and connected with which is an
alleged prophetic utterance of the dying man, still mark the spot,
as well as a tombstone, with a highly eulogistic inscription in
Latin verses, very inartistically carved. 1 Of his inventory it is said
that “ being ane young man unmarried, he had no comes, cattel,
nor vther movable gudis, except allenarlie certane small insycht
and plenishing in his chalmeris, with his buikis and abuilzements
of his body.”

The brother Hew, who was Minister of this parish, seems to
have been altogether a like-minded man, entirely devoted to the
cause of the Covenant, and a sufferer in its cause. He was
deprived of his charge by the Acts of Parliament of June and
October, 1662. Having been summoned for holding Conventicles,

* A. representation of this tombstone is to be found at the dose of the First Volume of the
Muniments of the Royal Burgh of Irvine , referred to in a previous note.

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he was ordained by the Privy Council in the following year to
obey the Acts at his peril. . He opposed the Indulgence, and

boldly continued his ministerial duties in the immediate vicinity of his
former church and in other places. Law tells us in his “ Memorial
“ April, 1676, did a Committee of the King’s Counsell sitt at
Glasgow. . . . . Some were summoned, sic as Mr. Hugh

Smith ; (he and) several others did not compear, for which they
were denounced as rebels, and put to the horn, and letters of

horn raised against them, and sought after.” Crawford in his
County History says that in that year he was fined and im-

prisoned for holding Conventicles.

We shall have occasion to make further reference to Mr.
Smith when we come to speak more specially of the times of the
persecution, as well as of the dark days of witchcraft, in its mani-
festations in this parish. But it may here be stated that he
seems to have employed his pen in defence of those who suffered
with himself for conscience’ sake. Wodrow, 1 writing of Mr. Jamie-
son of Govan, who was “justly reckoned one of the acutest philo-
sophers and most solid divines at this time in Scotland,” says that
" he had no small share with my worthy predecessor, Mr. Hugh
Smith, in the ‘ Apology for persecuted Ministers.’ ” Mr. Jamieson’s

1 See life of his father, Professor James Wodrow.

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wife, he adds, “ sister to that fine gentleman and excellent Chris-
tian, Sir George Maxwell of Nether Pollok, was a near relation of
my mother’s.” This lady, Grizell Maxwell, was relict of Robert
Hutcheson of Auchengray, when she married Mr. Jamieson. She
survived her husband, and died in February, 1689, leaving, as part
of her inventory, according to Dr. Scott, “ane dussan auld silver
spoons, ane auld copper cauldrone, and ane brass kettle.”

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CHAPTER VI.

It lias been mentioned that Mr Hew Smith, who was ordained here
in 1652, cast in his lot with the Covenanters, and was deprived
of his charge in 1662, and some notice has been taken of his
trials and imprisonment. We have now to record certain names
of “curates” who filled this charge, for we know little more of
those who successively were incumbents under Episcopacy, of whom
the first was —

Robert Hume. On the recommendation of the Archbishop he
passed his trials before the Presbytery, which in 1663 had been con-
stituted under authority of him and of the Synod. He was in
turn recommended to the Archbishop by the Presbytery for ordina-
tion in 1664. In the following year a visitation was appointed at
Eastwood for viewing the church and manse. Mr. Hume was

ordained to seek reparation of the sums from the parish, either by
consent or by law, and two of the brethren were appointed to aid
him thereanent, who soon after reported diligence. He died in

March, 1679, leaving some insicht, etc., “ valued at xxli.” He

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had a brother, James, a merchant in Edinburgh, but this is the
sum of our knowledge of him.

Next, Mr. Hector M'Laine, evidently of a Highland family,
was presented and inducted in the year of his predecessor’s death.
In the following year he was promoted to the bishopric of Argyll,
and is believed to have died in 1687.

Follows him Mr. William Fisher, instituted early in 1681.
He is said to have deserted his charge in 1689 “from fear.”

That of course was the period of the happy Revolution of 1688,
when Presbyterianism was re-established, along with the restoration
of our national liberties under William of Orange. Fisher must
have had some special occasion for fear. Very possibly he was

one of the two hundred who were “rabbled” out of their kirks

and manses by the rising of the mob in the West country at this
time. 1 Apart from this exceptional circumstance, it is an authentic
fact that any Episcopal incumbents who conformed to Presbyterian
government were allowed to retain their charges through the exercise
of a worthy toleration on the part of the now triumphant party,
and there were such still filling their places as late as 1720. But
there is one very pleasing and interesting incident related of Fisher,
namely, that “ having been the means of shelteriug and perhaps

1 Cunningham*! Church History , Vol. II., p. 261.

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preserving the life of Sir John Maxwell, afterwards Lord Justice
Clerk, when under proscription for his adherence to Presbytery,
his Lordship gratefully acknowledged his kindness by procuring for
him the office of domestic chaplain to the noble family of Montrose,
by whom he was subsequently protected while intruding at Aber-
foyle” 1 — an instance, perhaps rare, of the interchange of offices of
humanity and grateful requital between the beneficed clergyman and
the persecuted laird.

During the dominance of Episcopacy, Mr. Smith was in secret
carrying on his outed ministry, with, evidently, no little support
from his parishioners, both high and low; yet we find in 1673
there were four hundred Communicants in the Parish Church,
under the ministry of the “curate,” a very large proportion to the
then small population of the parish. It would seem that Eastwood
was supplied with competent ministers under Episcopacy, if we may
judge from the fact that two out of the three were University
graduates, and that at a time when, through the numerous
vacancies created, many most unqualified youths were promoted to
charges, Sir Walter Scott telling us that “ they had, according to
the historians of the period, ;is little morality as learning, and still
less devotion than either.”

1 Scott’s Fasti,

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Whatever leanings towards the Episcopal form of Church
government may have been evinced by Mr. John Maxwell of Auld-
house, who was once and again minister of this parish, it is beyond

doubt that his son, Sir George Maxwell, who succeeded to the

family honours and estate of Pollok, and his grandson (Sir George’s
son), who was in 1682 created a Baronet, and after the Be volu-
tion a senator of the College of Justice, and Lord Justice Clerk,
under the title of Lord Pollock, 1 were both devout adherents of
the Covenants, and suffered severely in the cause. Sir George

himself held orders in the Irish Church, assumed no doubt at the
time when his father served a cure in it. For some time after
the Reformation there was a much closer relation than now subsists
between the National Churches of England and Scotland, which con-
tinued until exasperating causes of separation came into force in the
times of Puritanism and the Covenants, and which, even in those
days, did not affect moderately-minded men like the saintly

Leighton. It is highly probable that some of the Maxwells were
of that order.

1 Besides other offices and honours, Sir John was appointed a Privy Councillor by William
11L, after his accession, and a Lord of the Scottish Treasury. He represented Renfrewshire
in the Scots Parliament at two different periods, and he was later one of the Commissioners
on the subject of the Union between England and Scotland.

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Wodrow informs us that in 1665 Sir George with other

West country lairds, who “ were living peaceably at Home, expect-
ing no such Treatment,” were, without reason given, and apparently
at the instigation of Archbishop Burnet, imprisoned, and “ con-

tinued under confinement when others got out upon the Bond of
Peace, 1668.” Towards the end of that year they gave in a

supplication to Lauderdale, which is embbdied in the history. The
author justly remarks upon “the Caution and Faithfulness,” as well
as “ the Duty and Loyalty ” of “ these honourable and excellent
Confessors for the Truth and Presbytery ” ; and they were liberated
from Stirling Castle, where he says, “ I think all the Three
were.” 1 Living so very shortly after the time, and on a footing
of close intimacy with Sir George’s son, Wodrow must have had

correct information as to the place and circumstances of his im-

prisonment. 2

Previously to this, Sir George’s name is included in the “ List
of Fines imposed by Middleton in Parliament, 1662,” for £4000,
as John Govan in Mains is for £300, a list of which the total

1 Wodroufs History , Vol. I., pp. 315, 310.

2 He appears according to other authorities to have Been, in August, 1688, in confinement
in the Tolbooth of Kirkcaldy.

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amounted to upwards of Jil, 000,000.* Subsequently, in 1676, at

the sitting of a Commission of Council at Glasgow (before which
Mr. Hugh Smith was also summoned, as before mentioned), Sir
George and his son were cited, along with others, whose names it
would be interesting to mention, “ to declare upon oath what Con-
venticles they had been at since the year 1674, and whether they
had reset or harboured intercommuned persons." Wodrow adds
that “ The Lairds of Pollock, elder and younger, got happily off
without swearing, by the Favour of some Members of the Com-
mittee ." 2 This was indeed fortunate for both of them and for those
whom they had protected, for to many was their kindly aid
extended. And only in the previous year “ Mr. Alexander Jamie-
son, Minister at- Govan (Sir George’s brother-in-law as has been
noted), “and Mr. Hugh Smith, gave the Sacrament in the House
of the Haggs, within Two Miles of Glasgow, with very much
Power and Liveliness." “ And if I mistake it not (adds Wodrow)
Mr. Jamieson did not again drink of the Fruit of the Vine, till
he drank it new in the Father’s Kingdom, at least it was some
Time this Year, that excellent Person died. . . . The Supper

1 Wodrow’s Hiatoi'yj Vol. I., p. 121, and Appendix No. xxxiii. The late Sir John Maxwell
was of opinion, as stated to myself, that the sale of the estato of Mearns by the Maxwells
was rendered necessary by the severity of these and other fines.

’IWd., Vol. I., p. 417.

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was likewise dispensed by Mr. Hugh Smith to his own Parish-
ioners of Eastwood, in a Barn at Kennyshead. . . The Lord

very much owned these Communions, and these sweet sealing Times
are not forgot by several yet alive. Those Proceedings, last Year
and this, very much galled the Bishops.” Indeed, the steps soon
after taken by the Council manifestly arose out of them. 1

It may be mentioned that the late Mr. Lawrence Hill, in a
letter to the author, mentioned that his grandfather, Ninian Hill, with
the Baronet of Pollok, and Hamilton of Barnes, were sent to

prison for attending the Sacrament at one or other of these places;
and it is stated accordingly that Mr. Ninian Hill of Lambhill was
one of those summoned with the Maxwells to this Council, and

that he was fined in 1000 merks.

Wodrow relates in his life of his father, that the latter, who
often preached in those troublous days both in houses and in the
fields, was once holding a service in the Hags wood, when “there
was a false alarm of soldiers, it proving the Lady Boss, with

servants and horses. The people were dispersed for a time, and
when recovered, he had lost his text, after which,” says his son
naively, “ he always had a leaf folded down at the place.”

1 IVodrovfs History, Yol. I., p. 416.

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Local tradition for long bore witness to the benevolence of Sir
George towards the persecuted Covenanters, and the substance of it
has been embodied by Galt in his stirring story, Ringan Gilhaize,
when he puts the following narrative into the lips of a poor

refugee : —

“I found myself, I cannot tell how, on the heights to the
South of Castlemilk. He pointed out to me Nether Pollok in the
midst of a skirting of trees, the seat and castle of that godly
and much persecuted Christian and true Covenanter, Sir George
Maxwell, the savour of whose piety was spread far and wide.
Being then hungered and very cold, ... I resolved to bend my
way towards Nether Pollok in the confident faith that the master
thereof, having suffered so much himself, would know how to
compassionate a persecuted brother. . . . Just, however, as I parted
from the herd, he cried after me, and pointed to a man coming
up the hill at some distance, with a gun in his hand, and a bird-
bag at his side, saying, * Yon’er’s Sir George Maxwell himseP
ganging to the moors. Eh ! but he has had his ain luck to fill
his pock so weel already.’ Whereupon I turned myself towards Sir
George, and on approaching him, beseeched him to have some com-
passion on a poor famished fugitive from the Pentlands. . . . The

worthy gentleman opened his bag, which, instead of being filled with
game, as the marvelling stripling had supposed, contained a store of

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provisions. “I came not for pastime to the moor this morning,” said
he, “ presenting to me something to eat, but because last night I
learned that many of the outcasts had been seen yesterday lurkiug
about these hills, and as I could not give them harbour, nor even
let them have any among my tenants, I have come out with some
of my men, as it were to the shooting, in order to succour them.
But we must not remain long together. Take with you what you
may require, and go quickly away.” 1

>Sir George’s devoutness of character and spirit are attested by
his diary, still preserved at Pollok, in which his religious experiences
and aspirations, and his conscientious endeavours to follow the path
of duty, are humbly recorded.

Sir John Maxwell, who succeeded his father. Sir George, in 1677,
entertained the same views and experienced the like sufferings in the
cause of our national religion. And it is not to be conceived that
one who proved himself a distinguished lawyer and judge considered
that he was acting contrary to the just rights and liberties of the

1 Another incident may be noted. It is to the effect that Sir George Maxwell, himself
in straits, sent a purse of rare old coins to the widow of the martyr Guthrie, but a friend
redeemed them. Guthrie’s death occurred in 1661. It is pertinent here to remark that
Professor Wodrow, father of the historian, informed his son that, being in Edinburgh at
the time of Mr. Guthrie’s execution, he was, though then but a student, admitted by favour
of a minister of his acquaintance, to see Mr. Guthrie in prison, the day before his execu-
tion. For a notice of this interview, and the remarks of the dying man, see Wodrow’s Life
of his father, subsequently referred to, pp. 32-34.

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people when he opposed the autocratic rule of Charles II. and his
minions in Church and State. Not only had he suffered along with
his father, but he succeeded to his heritage of persecution along with
his rank and possessions. I may not be enumerating all that he
was called to endure — it is noted before that which now follows that
he had “ met with many small attacks from the Sheriff- Depute, for
Irregularities Ecclesiastical, and keeping suffering ministers in his
house,” etc., 1 — but we find from the historian, who, by the way, knew
him most intimately to the last, Sir John having survived almost to
the close of Wodrow’s life and ministry in this parish, — that in 1683
he was, to use the words of the indictment, accused of “Resetting
Rebels in so far as Stevenson, Shoemaker in Pollocktoun, Robert
Jackson in Carnwatherick, Arthur Cuningham there, Robert Taylor
there, Archibald Barr in Pollocktoun, and several other of your Ser-
vants and Tenants being actually in the Rebellion 1679, were,” upon
various dates condescended on, “reset, harboured, intercommuned,
aided, assisted, and did Favours, or had Favours done by them to
you, or you otherwise supplied them. ... As also the said Sir
John Maxwell is guilty of high Treason, as the said Rebels and
Traitors were supplied and furnished with Meat, Drink and other
Provisions, reset and entertained in his House, by order of him, his

1 Wodrow’s History, Vol. II., pp. 423.

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Lady, or other Persons.” In the list of witnesses adduced against
him are some in Pollokshaws and Ardenhead, and Sir John’s own
Gardener, Groom, and Cook.

He was again, in the following year, along with various other
gentlemen of the West country, charged with having kept and
been present at divers house ami field conventicles within the five
preceding years. For the offences previously mentioned he suffered
imprisonment ; for the latter he was fined £8000 Sterling, and
ordered “ to be committed Prisoner to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh
till payment be made.” “ He refusing to pay this extravagant
and arbitrary Fine, continued Sixteen Months in close Prison.
Afterwards he got a Composition made, and paid a great Sum, and
gave bond for a greater, and was at vast charges before Mattel's
could be brought even this length.” 1

A touching entry appears in the History under date May
(March) 17, 1685. “Sir John Maxwell of Nethir Pollok petitions
the Council to be liberate that he may attend the Funerals of his
only sister the Lady Calderwood. They grant him till 2 April,
under a bond of Ten Thousand Pounds to re-enter that Day.”

His kinsman Zaclmrias Maxwell of Bluwarthill, from whom the
present family is descended, besides being fined twenty thousand

1 Wodrow’a History, Vol. II., pp. 316-7.

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merks, was among those ordained to continue prisoner for life . 1 It
further appears that in this and certain neighbouring parishes one
hundred and five of what was called the “ common people ” are
included in the rolls of implicated ; and that the fines imposed
upon this parish, not of course including the Pollok family and
others, amounted to £650. Neither does this include losses of
“ Horses, Kine, Sheep, and whole Year’s Crops.”* At the time of
Argyll’s disastrous rising in 1686, he had followers in Renfrewshire,
and among them some who afterwards held and concealed the arms
that they had used, in spite of proclamations requiring them to be
delivered up. George Cochran in Ardenhead was prosecuted before
the Sheriff for thus retaining arms, and was, in absence, sentenced
to fine and imprisonment until payment, and delivery of the
arms.*

Let us here give Wodrow’s account of the sufferings of one of
our parishioners, which I relate in the words of his history, under
date 1685 4 : —

“ Thomas Jackson of the parish of Eastwood, of whom before,
was in the year 1683, apprehended near Hamilton, and, for mere

1 Wodrow’s History , Vol. II., pp. 423-425.

* Wodrow’s History , Vol. II., p. 317, and Preface, pp. vi. and vii.

3 Hector’s Record* of Renfrewshire Civil Court s, p. 21

4 Wodrow’s History , Vol. II., pp. 340 aod 611.

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nonconformity, banished to West Flanders. There he was sold as
a slave, and engaged in the war against the Spaniards. He took
the first opportunity that offered, and . left the service, and got into
a French ship coming home, and from France got over again to
his native country. Towards the beginning of this year, in a close
search at Glasgow, he was taken by Major Balfour and Colonel
Buchan. When seized he made some struggle • to defend himself
and escape, in which he was fearfully wounded in the head and
terribly mangled. Upon examination they found he had been

banished, and broke his act of banishment, and they threatened
him with present death. Accordingly he was carried down to the
Green, and ordered to be shot. This did neither damp nor con-
fuse him ; he was ready for’ his change, and no way discouraged.
When the soldiers were drawn out to fire upon him, and he set
before them, and in some measure had tasted the bitterness of
death, somewhat or other made them alter their resolution, if it

was settled before ; and he was sent back to prison to endure

greater hardships. In a few days he was sent into Edinburgh,

where he lay in the thieves’ hole with irons upon him two and
thirty weeks. All that time he was never free of the irons, both
upon his legs and arms, except once for a few hours, when he

was brought before some committee or other ; who remitted him to

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the irons again for seventeen weeks more ; at length he was
banished to New Jersey, and died in the voyage.”

But the darkest tale remains to be told. On the 1st February,
1685, being Sunday, information was sent to Paisley, by one who bore
resentment to them, against John Park and James Algie, joint tenants
of a bit of land at Kennishead. Wodrow has his information on the
subject from his predecessor, Mr. Matthew Crawford, who was Pres-
byterian minister of the parish at the date of these events, and as
they occurred less than twenty years before the historian’s own settle-
ment in Eastwood, the facts must be regarded as beyond dispute.

The History states : — “ The bearer of the Letter was put in close
Custody until the Forenoon’s Sermon was over, and then a Party of
Soldiers were ordered out, and the Two Men were seized in their
own House, just when about Family Worship, and carried down to
Paisley that Night, and examined there upon the common Interro-
gatories. In which they not giving full satisfaction, were left in
Prison. And the Commissioners having a Justiciary Power for that
shire, met on Tuesday, and sentenced them in the Forenoon, and
they were executed that same day about Two of the Clock.

“ When they were in Prison, after some pains taken upon them ”
with a minister who conversed with them, “they came to be satisfied
to take the Abjuration Oath. But it seems their Death was re-
solved on, whatever condescensions they should make. And when an

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Offer was made, in their Name, in open Court, that they would
swear the Oath required in the Council’s Proclamation, the Laird of
Orbistoun, who now managed Matters here and in Dumbartonshire,
according to the bloody imposing Spirit of the Times, answered, direct-
ing himself to the two Pannels, The Abjuration Oath shall not save
you; unless you take the Test, you shall hang presently.

“ The Two plain good Men, having a just Abhorrence at the Test,
replied, If to save our Lives we must take the Test, and the Abjura-
tion will not save us, we will take no Oath at all. And upon this
qualified Refusal of the Abjuration, they were sentenced to die pre-
sently. Had the poor men peremptorily demanded the Benefit of the
Abjuration, even by the then Laws they could not have taken their
Life, for they had no facts at all against them, and the Test could
not in Law be required of them ; but they had neither Skill nor
Courage to plead before Courts, and no Lawyers were allowed to
argue for them.”

They were buried (near the place of execution) outside of the
town, not at Eastwood, as stated in the Cloud of Witnesses; and a
monument has in later times been erected to their memory in the
Cemetery behind the hence-called Martyrs’ Church . 1

1 Wodrow*8 History, Vol. II., pp. 461, 2.

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Suck is, without comment, the historical account of this cruel
and most unwarrantable proceeding, and with the omission, it may
be added, of some coarse and offensive expressions on the part of the
Judges.

Another case from this parish, which happily had not such a
tragic ending, came up on the same day. Robert King, miller at
Pollokshaws, who lived, with his wife, to give the account to
Wodrow himself, had several times been severely fined, and had
suffered further unjust exactions on the part of the military. His
wife, Janet Scoular, is oddly described as “ an excellent woman, far
beyond the common Size of Country People, for good Sense and
solid Knowledge,” as well as religious experience. She had seen
the soldiers rifling her house, and looked on with Christian “ Gravity
and Cheerfulness,” as she beheld from her door her horses and cows
driven along the Shaw bridge, at the end of which the mill stood.
Her poor husband at the time of his examination was called to look
from the window upon the two forenamed young Men, his Neighbours
and Acquaintances, hanging upon the Gibbet, before the Tolbooth of
Paisley, where the Court sat, “ and assured (the Threatening was
illegal as well as barbarous), that if he took not the Test immedi-
ately, he would be Knit up with them. He refused for a good
while. To fright him the more, they shut him up in a Corner of
the Prison, permitting no Body but his Guard of Soldiers to be near

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him, and told him he had but one Hour more to live, and the
Trumpet was to be sounded thrice, and if he sat the third Summons
at the expiry of the Hour, there was no Mercy for him. When he
was sent off the first Blast was given, and in less than Half an
Hour the next. The poor Man, brought to this Pinch, just from
his Work, was much frighted, and no great Wonder, and fell into very
great confusion, and as he himself used to express it, was perfect
out of himself ; and in his Fright, when warned before the last
Sound of the Trumpet, he complied, and took the Test. This was
Matter of heavy Vexation to him for many a year.” 1

There is preserved at the house of Eastwood Mains, a banner of
the Covenant, in white silk, one and a quarter yards long, by two
yards in depth, having emblazoned upon it in red and gold, to the
right the Scottish thistle, crown and motto, with date 1689 : to the
left, an open Bible, and beneath, in large, gilt letters, slightly effaced :
“ For Beformation In Church and State Ac C ording (sic) to the Word
of God And our Covenants.” From its date it manifestly is to be
connected with the rising which terminated with the battle of Killie-
crankie, and although there is no evidence to show by whom it was
borne, it will be remembered that in 1662 John Govan of Mains
was severely fined for adherence to the Covenant.

1 Wodrow’a Htitoi-y, "Vol. II., pp. 462, 3.

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CHAPTER VII.

Fbom this record of cruelty and .oppression we are called to pass in
review another, not less revolting and deplorable, not less discredit-
able to our common humanity. It fills a page which we would fain
have passed over; but although not directly connected with our sub-
ject, it touches so closely the religious opinions of the times, and its
notable manifestation in this parish is interwoven with the histories
of the persons of whom mention has just been made, that no faithful
chronicler could fail to notice it. We refer, of course, to the alleged
outbreak of witchcraft in the very midst of these eventful years.

This extraordinary delusion reflects upon the intelligence, the

toleration, and the humanity, alike of rulers and people, philosophers

and statesmen, scientists and jurists, and the clergy at once of the

Romish and the Reformed Churches. It came to a height in the

century before, and that after the Reformation ; and the clerical and

popular demand for the extermination of these wretched persons seems

to have exhausted itself during the reign of Puritanism, and the

first period after the Restoration, — that of the other persecutions.

It js difficult to account for the strange sequence of events which
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marked the time, nor for the concurrence of different states of thought
and feeling in the public mind ’ which produced them. It was, for
one thing, a time of great tension and excitement, one which lent
itself to all bordering on the marvellous, so that it need not surprise
us to find an annalist recording among the portents occurring every-
where in the midst of the winter whose story is about to be told,

that “ there was an apparition of a man clothed in rid, on a hill

above Eastwood Moor, crying, ‘Wo, wo, to this land.”’ Various

accounts state that the manifestations at Pollok formed a new
outburst ; and in the dismal tragedies which ensued, Renfrewshire
shows an unenviable pre-eminence, beginning with the case of Inverkip,
and perhaps others in 1661-2, and culminating in that of Bargarran
in 1696, while that of Pollok- is about midway between. That last
excited great attention at the time, and the account which follows
is brought together from , various contemporary authorities.

In the very circumstantial account of the case given by Sir John
Maxwell 1 — and it is characteristic of the times that this man of
highest ability and character, who subsequently became supreme

criminal Judge in Scotland, was entirely carried away by the pre-
vailing deception in regard to this class of cases ; and his letter

1 See Crawford’s History of Renfrewshire .

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on the subject is addressed to George Sinclair, 1 Professor of Philo-
sophy in the College of Glasgow ; — his father was seized when
spending the night of 14th October, 1676, in that city “with a
hot and fiery distemper; and coming home next day suffered for
seven weeks from great pain, chiefly in his right side.” There

appears on the scene a vagrant girl of thirteen, apparently deaf

and dumb, but who eik months later so far recovered her speech,

and showed that she understood various languages. She was a

strange, unaccountable creature, idle and dissolute, but supposed to
be “ haunted by a familiar.” She seems to have conceived a
sincere regard for the Pollok family, and she greatly frequented the
house, where, by signs, she gave the ladies of it to understand
that it had been revealed to her in vision that Sir George’s ill-
ness was to be attributed to uncanny work going on in a cottage

1 George Sinclair, a well-known mathematical writer, and Professor both of Mental and
Natural Philosophy, was admitted in 1654 and ejected from office in 1662, for declining to
conform to Episcopal jurisdiction. After his ejection he followed the business of a mineral
surveyor and practical engineer. His best-remembered book, Satan's Invisible World, was
for long a constituent part of every cottage library in Scotland. It is curious to find science
and superstition so mixed in the life of this extraordinary person. He was recalled at the
Revolution to his Chair, which had been suppressed for want of funds, and died in 1696. —
Chamber’s Biographical Dictionary. This singular book was printed at Edinburgh in 1686,
and the title-page indicates that it was by “ Mr. George Sinclair, late Professor,” etc. It
must therefore have been the work of the period during which he was ejected from his
Chair. Copies of the first edition are exceedingly rare. In a note to Sir Walter Scott’s
Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, he is said to have been after his ejection from his
Chair Minister of Eastwood in Renfrewshire ; but with the utmost deference to such an
eminent authority, 1 must say that I have found nothing to confirm this statement.

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at Polloktoun, the village on the estate before the existence of
Pollokshaws, and which stood on the opposite side of the river
from the castle, where are now the roofless dovecot, and a number
of old trees. Sir John in his account says : “ At first they hardly
understood her, till she went to one of the gentlewoman’s closets,
and bringing thence a little beeswax, she plyed it before the fire,”
to explain that effigies of Sir George were being used with a
malicious purpose. Lady Maxwell, it is said, “not being inclined to
superstition, would have declined the girl’s request ” to have a search
made, but through the importunity of the other gentlewomen, she
consented. The girl insisted on taking with her for her protection
two man-servants, whose names with their after-evidence are given,
and in the- house to which they went she took the opportunity of
a momentary absence from it of Janet Mathie, “a woman of evil
fame,” to whom it belonged, to put her hand up the chimney, and
take from it a wax figure, with “two prins stuck in the right syd
of it, and one on the shoulder.” “That night the laird had good
rest, and mended afterward, though slowly, for he was sorely brought
down in body.” “ But upon the 4th of January following, his
sickness recurred with that violence, that for four or five days his
friends and relations had no great confidence of his life. 1 But they

1 According to another oooount, hie face and body turned ail like the day, and near unto
•death.”

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were more amazed on the 7th January, being the Sabbath day, when
they had an express from the dumb girl, who was at Polloktown,
but could not get over the water to the house, the river being so
swelled at that time, signifying that John Stewart, Mathie’s eldest
son,” (she being by this time in jail), “had four days since, formed
an effigy of clay, for taking away Sir George’s life. And when she
was called for, she declared it was in the house, beneath the bolster,
among the bed-straw.” From the evidence it appears that this
effigy he and certain hags had kept turning and roasting before the
fire. It was next day found where the girl had indicated, “ with
two pins in it, one in each side, but that in the right side so long
as to pierce through to the other;” and on the same day Stewart
was apprehended, along with his sister Anaple, just entered her
fourteenth year, and who afterwards proved a “ key to the detection
of making both the pictures.” Sir George again recovered, but died
in the course of the year, “of that sweating sickness,” as we learn
from a different account. According to yet a third, the girl reported
that there was “another picture made of him in Eillbryd, and offered
to discover it, but they slighted the notion. However, Sir George
dies, being worn to a shadow.” And, according to this last report,
it may be here stated that “she detects another effigy of Mr. Hugh
Smith, minister of Eastwood ; and she, being assisted by his brother,
Mr. James, finds it in a house near to Renfrew, the said Mr. Hugh at

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this tyme, being very unwell, and near to death. . . . Mr. Hugh

Smith dyes of his disease.” 1 Law says that in this month (Feb.
1677), “did the said dumb lass in Pollok place goe, and six men
with her to a witch-woman’s house in Carmonnock Parish, and got
an effigie of clay, which was said to be Mr. Hugh Smith’s, Minister
at Eastwood, having in it a prin stuck in the head of it, two in
the sydes of it, and one in the breast. Before this tyme Mr.

. Hugh was much afflicted with pain and sweating, to the changing
of half a dusson of shirts some days, and was brought very low ;
and after this discovery, and the effigie gotten, and those prins
taken out, he grew well again.” Indeed the poor man had then

a hot time of it, as he had been in the previous year fined and
imprisoned for holding Conventicles.

Nor was this all. According to Law another “ image ” found

was supposed to be made “ to kill the daughter-in-law of the said

Sir George, who was an active gentlewoman in the detection of the
%

foresaid effigies ; the ground of the presumption was that she fell
sick at the same tyme.” “This portrait was found on the 17th
January in the prison-house of Paisley ; ” from which it appears
that the wretched woman did not desist from her attention to the

1 Mr. Smith’s death seems to have occurred in May, 1077 ; that of Sir George earlier in
the year.

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objects of her dislike even after her incarceration. And once
more, he states that there was “ground of suspicion to some that
the same witch had wronged Mr. Jamieson, Minister at Govan, the
laird’s good-brother, especially considering that he himself suspected
he was witched, though he knew not by whom, for he had a great
pain betwixt his navill and his back, which the physician could
not well understand, and continued with him a long tyme, and
brought him very low, and at lenth ended his days .” 1

The only occasion which Sir John can suggest for Janet
Mathie’s ill-will to his father was that on the day before he was

taken ill in Glasgow it was reported to him that one of her

sons had taken part in breaking into his orchard ; but he had

taken no measures against him — nay, had allowed him to remain
in his mother’s house after her arrest, and during his own illness.
He and his lady had been very courteous to the mother, and

“had rebuked some for spreading bad reports upon her name,
as not appearing sufficiently well founded to a conviction.” But
they seem to have been what would be called a bad lot ; and
further disclosures revealed the names, besides her and her son and
daughter, of three other women who were alleged to have been .
“ fellow-sisters in the aforesaid sorcery.” Some of them confessed

1 Law’s MemuriaU.

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to paction with the Evil One, who was present and assisted at
the making of the effigies, and the usual horrible declarations were
emitted ; witch marks in abundance were found upon the persons
of the accused, and all the proof obtained of guilt which was con-
sidered satisfactory in these days. In consequence, the Lords of
H.M. Privy Council appointed a Commission for their trial, which
was gone into in a very solemn manner. With the exception of
Anaple, the rest of the accused, four women and the young man,
were condemned, and suffered death at Paisley on the 20th February.
Janet Matbie continued to deny her guilt to the last, though en-
treated by her two children to confess, as they did. She was first
hanged for a time, then cast into a fire ; and along with her the
images of wax and clay, wrapped in a napkin, were dashed in
pieces in the fire. Marjory Craig and Bessie Weir also refused to
confess ; and when the latter, who was also the last to be hanged, and
whom her Master, the Enemy of Man, had previously managed to
save from the gibbet in Ireland, “ was cast off the gallows, there
appears a raven and approaches the hangman, within an ell of him,
and flyes away again.” Nothing very remarkable surely, but “all
the people observed it, and cried out at the sight of it.”

As for the girl Douglas we find the following in the Fountain-
hall M.S. : — “ In June, 1677, the secret Councell caused bring in the
dumb lass, now speaking, calling herself Janet Douglas (but she lyed

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as to her parentage 1 ), to the Cannogate tolbooth, where I spake
with her. The Councell ordained her to be banishet the King’s
dominions, and transported in some ship : but there is no master can
yet be persuaded to take her with them, they are so feared, and
some choice rather to hazard away without a pass, as to go in such
bad company, as they think.”*

Such is one of the many dreadful tragedies of these times. But
still these persons were in many cases at least would-be dabblers in
the black art, who had given themselves over to evil, neither fearing
God nor regarding man. They took part in unholy rites and obscene
practices, corrupting youth and innocence, — evidence of which we have
in this very case, — besides showing malevolence to their neighbours,
and doing what they could to injure both their property and their
good name. “ With all the compassion,” says Mr. C. Kirkpatrick
Sharpe, “ which the fate of so many unfortunate victims is calculated
to excite, it ought not to be forgotten that many of these persons
made a boast of their supposed art, in order to intimidate and extort
from their neighbours whatever they desired ; that they were fre-

1 Law says that she was a gentleman’s daughter from the north.

9 Sir Walter Soott in his letters on Demonology, etc., already referred to, remarks —
“As this girl’s imposture was afterwards discovered and herself punished, it is reasonably
to be concluded that she had herself formed the picture or image of Sir George, and
had hid it, where it was afterwards found, in consequence of her own information.”

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quently of an abandoned life, addicted to horrible oaths and impreca-
tions ; and in some cases vendors of downright poison, by which they
gratified their customers in their darkest purposes of avarice or
revenge.” Apart from this it would be unintelligible how so many
good and great men of all ages, countries, and creeds, should have
gone in for this prosecution.

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CHAPTER VIII.

Mr. Hew Smith, the outed minister at Eastwood, having, like Sir
George Maxwell and Mr. Jamieson, died soon after the alleged be-
witching, the Presbyterian party in the parish were left without one
under whom they could worship according to their conscience. For
although they had neither church nor benefice to offer, they desired
the comfort of such ministrations as opportunity allowed them to
enjoy. They found a spiritual guide in Mr. Matthew Crawford, who
is described in the history of the County as being of the family of
Carse or Kerse, and a native of Greenock. Prefixed to his MS.
History of the Church, presently to be noticed, there is a short
sketch of his life, from which, and other sources of information, it
appears that he was laureated at the University of Edinburgh in
1662 , that he studied at Utrecht for two years, where he wrote
several treatises, chiefly controversial, and maintained some public
theses, according to the usage of University life in these times. Re-
turning, he was called to be chaplain to Dame Margaret Maxwell,
the Dowager Lady Houston. In 1668 he was sent, apparently

for the second time, to Utrecht with Mr. William Carstairs, and
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there he was much grieved to see the general profanation of the
Lord’s Day, and was stirred to write a treatise on the subject
of its obligation, to be hereafter mentioned. He was licensed
at Glasgow at a meeting held, for fear of penalties, in private,
in 1671 : was complained against as keeping conventioles to the
Diocesan Synod in October, 1674, and denounced rebel, in April,
1676, by the afore-mentioned Glasgow Committee of Privy Council;
but, though eagerly searched for, he was not apprehended. Being
privately called by the parishioners of Eastwood, with the consent
of Sir John Maxwell, he was secretly ordained at Paisley for the
ministry here in 1679. Enjoying the friendship of the family of

Pollok, he frequently in those perilous times preached to such persons
as ventured to assemble in the house of his patron, who was sub-
jected to severe distress on account of the protection he afforded him.
For two years, 1683-4, he had to wander up and down to hide
himself. Thereafter he received a new call and invitation from
the elders and parishioners of Eastwood, warmly supported by Sir
John Maxwell and his lady, by which he was encouraged to
resume his labours here. He entered upon the living at the
Revolution Settlement, and is understood to have afterwards borne
a principal part in arranging and settling the affairs of the Church
at the critical period when Presbyterianism was re-established, for
he was many times sent to Edinburgh to assist in arranging matters

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regarding that re-establisment. He began the work, afterwards com-
pleted by the Wodrows, father and son, and others, of putting into
shape the Church’s procedure in cases of discipline, and the Form
of Process, which dates from this early period.

The occasion of Mr. Crawford’s settlement was taken for putting
the church and manse in a state of repair. Accordingly at a
visitation on 16th July, 1690, “The Presbytery having considered
y* cure of the church and manse of Eastwood, they find the
church needs some reparatione. And the manse is both ruinous
and insufficient. And therefore the Brethren recommended it to
the Heritors to take some speedy course to putt the manse in a
sufficient care. And -appoints Mr. Pat. Simsone to speak to Sir
John Maxwell thereanent ; and to signifie, that in case it be not
repaired that we cannot but excuse Mr. Math. Crawford to remove
his family to some convenient dwelling.”

On 3rd June, 1691, upon a desire from Mr. Matthew Crawford,
several of the brethren were appointed to meet at the kirk “to sight
y® s d kirk and manse,” taking the advice of skilful tradesmen ; where-
upon,

“ 25th June, 1692. — Reported by y® brethren appointed for y®
visiting y* Kirk and Manse of Eastwood that they had met there on
y® day appointed, and intim&con having been given of y® s d meeting,
and were convened Jo : Penman from Sir Jo : Maxwell of Pollock

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who was not then at home, with another Heritour and all y® elders
present. And having called two tradesmen skilled in mason and
wright work and sclatting to take a view of y® s d kirk and
manse, and to give y* verdict accordingly, viz., Jo : Mure in Sclates
and James Biggar in Kennishead, the s d two workmen having taken
a particular view of y® Kirk of Eastwood in order to y® necessary
reparacon y'of, do give verdict as follows, viz. — -y* it will need 500
sclates estimat to ten marks Scots, 20 dais for sarking estimat at
«ighteen pounds, 8 bols of lime two pound for workmanship fiftie
marks for glasse and a on y® west end of y® kirk ten

pounds, item for glasse furnished to y® kirk already by the Session
ten marks, for hinging y* bell thirtie shillings, besides what is
payed out by Sir Jo : Maxwell at several times for pointing y®
kirk and mending y® glasse windows a hundred forty-three pound
eleven shillings six pennies conform to y® particular stated accounts
y'of, the whole of all y® afores d accompts amounts to two hundred
twenty one pound fourteen shillings ten pennies Scots : y® s d work-
men having also visited y® minister’s manse do Give y r Verdict as
follows, viz., it having but one chamber and a little study y* to
make it sufficient it will be requisit y* be a jam built at y*
back of y® hoose sixteen feet square house height, y® second

stone being equal at y® q eh they estimat y® charge of two

hundred pounds, and for repairing y* office houses thirtie thrie

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pound six shilling eight pennies, beside q‘ is laid out already for
reparacon of y e house by Sir Jo. Maxwell, viz., nineti nine pound
one shilling six pennies and by Robert Saunders of Old House
five threave of thack sheaves at eighteen shillings per threave four
pound ten shillings amounting in whole to three hundred thirty-six
pound eighteen shilling two pennies for y® whole expense for both
kirk and manse according to y® fors d calculation will amount to
five hundred fifty eight pound thirteen shillings Scots money of
q oh soume It is Judged reasonable y‘ q* is laid out already by y®
s d Sir Jo : Maxwell and Robert Saunders in y® fors d repar&cone
should be allowed to them in laying on y® s d sume upon y® whole
HeritSrs of the parish proportionately conform to y r respective
valuation y* y® rest of y® Heritors may bear y T proportionable
equal part of y® whole burden accordingly.

The Presbytrie having considered this report as to y® whole of
it does approve of y® same, and doe judge v* y® kirk and manse
ought to be repaired accordingly.”

“Agoust 23, 1693. — Mr. D. Brown, P. Simpsone, Jo. Stirling,
Jo. Paisley, are appoynted to wait upon Sir Jo: Maxwell of
Pollock and Mr. Matthew Crawford at y® Church of Eastwood on
tbursday come 4 night for adjusting some things relating to y*
church and manse y r , and relating to y® elderschipp.”

“23 Sept., 1693. — Reported that the same adjusted.”

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF EASTWOOD.

101

“Mar. 15, 1699. — The Lord Justice Clerk to be seen at
Pollok about witches .” 1

Several subsequent entries show Mr. Crawford’s health to be
becoming frail. “December 6, 1693 — The Presby trie thought fit to
appoint that in respect of Mr. Matthew Crawford’s inabilitie of
bodie his parish of Eastwood should be supplyed for some time
ance a fourth night by tourns.” It is also noticeable that there
are few Session minutes at this time. He is present at meetings
of Presbytery in October, 1698, and again in July, 1699. The

last meeting of Session at which be presided was on 2 June, 1700.

This leads me to remark that the Kirk Session records of
this parish begin with May, 1689, a date which was thus imme-
diately after the Revolution ; and thirty-three folio pages are occu-
pied with the remaining eleven years of Mr. Crawford’s ministry.
It appears, however, from an entry so late as 1727, that the

minutes at first had only been kept in scroll by Thomas Lock,

the then Schoolmaster and Session Clerk, and that a minute book
was now got by Mr. Wodrow, and the minutes engrossed.

The minutes, with the exception of a few entries relating to dis-
bursements for the poor and the education of the children of indigent

1 Presbyiery Records of Paisley .

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parents, 1 are taken up with offences against morality. Considering,
however, that the Session in these times took notice of all known
delinquencies, it cannot be said that there was much to be com-
plained of amongst the parishioners. At several periods in Wodrow’s
time there is not an entry for fully two years together except the
half-yearly appointment of a representative elder to the Presbytery
and Synod. Besides graver matters, there are charges of desecration

of the Lord’s day and of the fast day by “vaging” in the fields,

“ nutting, and sic like ; ” as also, on various occasions, of swearing,
scolding, and fly ting ; as well as of drunkenness, sometimes not proved,
as of a man “ at the old lady Pollock’s burial,” and a woman using
charms at Hallowe’en, which may appear to us to have been innocent
enough sport, but was regarded then as occasion for subjecting herself
to the snare of the devil. Irregular and clandestine marriages were
also frequently the occasion of Church discipline.

In the Record of Kirk Session, under minute of June 26, 1762,
there is notice of eight volumes folio of Acts of Assembly, etc., which

had become the property of the Kirk Session, at a cost of “ Six

pounds, five shillings, and six pence sterling, and the Moderator hath

1 “ Intimation being made by the Schoolmaster that several poor scholars were so far
advanced in learning that they coaid read in the bible, bat were like to lose their learning
for want of Bibles, whereupon the Session appointed six Bibles and two New Testaments to
be bought for them, which accordingly was done. Also they appointed to pay the School-
master for foar poor scholaris.” — Extract Minute, 10 Nov., 1692.

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added to the collection of the forsaid Acts, Pardovan’s Collection in
4to. as a present to the Kirk Session and their successors in office,
for which he might have charged five shillings ster. The Session
unanimously agree that these eight folio volumes with the indexes and
Pardovan’s Collection shall be kept by their Moderator in his closet,
and not to be lent to any to prevent their being lost.” The writer
has also heard a vague tradition of a small library having been
left for the use of the ministers of this charge. We can only ask,
Where are these now?

In the minutes of that period both the Shaws and Pollok toun
are mentioned, and among other place-names, Roucan and Sclates of
Roucan, Hillfield, Caunticraiges, Lintockwood, Boglesbrig, Broad bar,
Shawmilne, Sclates, Damshot, Bowes of Pollok, etc. And among
family names still or lately found in the parish, Tassie, Giffin, Fauls,
Biggart, Jackson, Urrie, Sproull, Hart, Deans, Finlayson, etc. 1

Mr. Crawford was a laborious student and writer. He published
in 1669 an 8vo. volume, as has been already mentioned, on the per-
petual obligation of the Fourth Commandment. This was before his
being licensed ; and thereafter, in 1672, A Brief Discourse of the
Bloody and Treasonable Practices of the Pa/pists; and also an answer

1 1 am desirous not to traverse any future history of the not strictly ecclesiastical affairs
of the parish, a circumstance which must account for any omission of family names, and
the like.

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to another book on the subject. But the great effort of his later years
'was the compilation of a History of the Church of Scotland from the
introduction of Christianity down to the year 1680. It has never
been published, though his son contemplated doing so ; 1 but it is
preserved in its original form in the Library of the Church. It con-
sists of two volumes folio, of upwards of 1400 pages, “ all writ in a
fairly legible character . . . of his own composure, collected from

several rare MSS. . . . He hath given an account of a great

many transactions, from the year 1638 to the year 1662, from
original papers.” 1 In this writer’s time it was in the hands of the
author’s son, and at the date of the first Statistical Account it was
in the possession of the Church, but it seems to have subsequently
gone amissing, as we find that a writer under the signature of
Jonathan Oldbuck in the Edinburgh Christian Instructor , Yol. XX V.,
states that Principal Lee had lately been so fortunate as to discover it.

Mr. Crawford died in December, 1700, when scarcely sixty years
of age, and in the twenty-second of his ministry. He left a widow,
Margaret Houston, 8 who survived till February, 1727 ; and two sons,
one of whom, Mr. Matthew, was, up to 1710, librarian in the Uni-

1 Wodrow’a Correspondence , Yol. L, pp. 98-103, 112, 113, and IT., 311.

* Crawford’s History of Renfrewshire.

* She was daughter to John Houston of that ilk. It would almost appear that he had
formed an earlier marriage with a lady who died while he was yet young.

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versity of Glasgow, but was in that year ordained to Inchinnan, from
which he was translated in 1721 to the chair of Ecclesiastical History
in the University of Edinburgh, a preferment which seems to indicate
that he inherited, with his father’s name, his historical taste. He
died in June, 1736.

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CHAPTER IX.

We are brought by Mr. Crawford’s death to the beginning of the
eighteenth century, a period so comparatively recent as hardly to
demand the researches of the antiquarian. And although we must
notice the ministry and labours of Mr. Wodrow (and just mention
subsequent incumbents and events), so much has been published re-
garding him that there is less occasion to dwell upon bis life,
eminent as he was among all the ministers of the parish.

Three years elapsed before the vacancy was filled, owing, no
doubt, to the great demand for preachers at the time; but Mr.
Robert Wodrow, having received license 6th January, 1703, waa
some months later elected minister by the heritors and elders,
with consent of the congregation, such being the mode of appoint-
ment between the Revolution and the reimposition of patronage in
1711 ; and he was ordained on 28th October, Mr. James Mack-
dougal, as the minute of session bears, preaching upon Acts xz.
28, “ Take heed to thyself, and to the flock, etc.”

Mr. Wodrow belonged to a family which, according to tradi-
tion, had come .originally from England, and had possessed the
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Hill of Eaglesham or other lands there for between three and four
hundred years. Shortly before the Reformation Mr. Patrick Wod-
row was Vicar of Eaglesham, a man of scholarship, who, embracing
the Protestant faith, married Agnes Hamilton, daughter to a
member of the house of Abercorn. 1 His grandson, Robert, was the
trusted chamberlain of Alexander, Earl of Eglinton, commonly called
“Greysteel,” and left six sons, one of whom succeeded his father
in office ; and the second, John, a merchant in Glasgow, and a
singularly intelligent and pious man, being taken prisoner at Pent-
land, suffered martyrdom at Edinburgh, along with Hugh M'Kail
and others, 22nd December, 1666, as briefly related in his nephew’s
history, and more fully elsewhere*; while of his sons, Francis was
taken at Bothwell, and was lost with the other prisoners at
Orkney in 1679. The fourth of the family above mentioned was
James, the father of the historian, who studied divinity under
both Archbishop Fairfoul and Principal Baillie ; was admitted to
see Guthrie in the prison before his execution, and was privately
licensed at Glasgow in 1672, and preached as he had opportunity

i Wodrow’s father told him that one of the family killed a man of the name of
Hamilton in the churchyard of Eaglesham on a Sabbath, and he adds “The Lord seems
to have been pleading a controversy with all his posterity.”

* Wodrow’s History, VoL L p. 261 ; and Last Words and Dying Testimonies of ike
Scots Worthies , pp. 115-118.

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during “the killing timea” Enjoying a patrimony, he lived a good
deal in retirement at Eaglesham, and married Margaret, daughter
of William Hair of Pennell, in Kilbarchan, a very remarkable
woman, of whom her affectionate son had most tender reoollectiona
Her mother, Janet Stewart, was daughter to James Stewart, tutor
of Blackhall, as he was described, who was thus the common
ancestor of the laird of Pollok, and the minister of Eastwood, they
thus counting kin together. It would be interesting but too
tedious for these pages, to follow further the connection with the
founders of xHutcheson’s Hospital, with Stewart of Pardovan and
other families, and we must also refrain from dwelling upon the
character and career of Wodrow's father, he having left a memoir
of him, which contains some most interesting and tender passages.
Induced to return to Glasgow, he both ministered there in what
was called the Merkdaily or South Meeting-house, where he had
been ordained , 1 and he privately instructed young men for the
ministry, while after the Revolution he was first appointed to the

1 These meeting-houses were erected, or rather adapted from older buildings — (the erection
of special edifices not being allowed) — under proclamations by James TIL in February and
April, 1687. Although this indulgence was mainly intended by the King for his co-religionists,,
the Roman Catholics, it permitted the hitherto proscribed Presbyterians the liberty of meeting
for worship. According to M‘Ure, a large number of the people flocked to the indulged
ministers, — the churches being still in the hands of the Episcopal clergy, — and large sums of
tnoney were subscribed for providing such accommodation, as well as in the name of seat-
rents. Through the researches of William George Black, Esq., writer, Glasgow, and of Robert

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High Church, and, on the subsequent settlement of the colleges, to
be Professor of Divinity ; and he conducted that chair with great
learning and faithfulness till his death in 1707. Never did one in
such a position show more fidelity in not only instructing the minds,
but edifying the souls of his students, whom he regarded as his
very flock and family. His attached and admiring son seems to be
incapable of expressing all his worth.

It may be allowable to quote two passages from the little work
just noticed, as illustrating the character of both the parents, and
giving a vivid picture of the times.

“ Whilst living at Glasgow, my father was denounced, and forced
to go out of the way for some days. In his absence, a Presbyterian
minister, a friend of his, came to see my mother. An information

Renwick, Esq., Town Clerk Depute of the City, it has been ascertained that the site of Merkdaily
was part of the lands of Conclud, being one of the endowments of the Rector of Eagles ham,
and that it was situated between the Gallowgate and the Green. I shall not further refer
to the site, nor to the origin of the name, as this information is likely to appear, in one
form er other, under the name and authority of one or other of these learned gentlemen.
Besides this, there are notices of the north meetiug-house, and of the Wynd Church, said
by Cleland to have been built in the year 1687, “by a party of privileged Presbyterians
during the time of Episcopacy/' and by Scott as having been “ received as a city church
in 1691 " ; and it having been condemned as insufficient, the minister and congregation
removed to St. Andrews Church (which had been founded in 1739, though only finished
in 1756) before November, 1761. On its being vacated by the St. Andrew’s Congregation,
it seems, after lying several years in ruins, to have been “rebuilt in 1761, and con-
stituted the west parish, but on St George's Church being built in 1807, the minister
and congregation removed there.” This last was in the later days of the ministry of the
venerable Dr. Porteous.

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had been lodged against him, and a party of soldiers had a Com-
mission to apprehend him. He had been observed by one who was
dogging him to come up to my father’s house : immediately the soldiers
were acquainted, and five or six came and found him with my mother,
and told him he was their prisoner. They were in the hall, the chil-
dren were out, and only a servant within. Mrs. Wodrow put on a
very cheerful countenance, and desired them to sit down till her
friend went into another room and put on clean linens, since he must
go to prison ; while she ordered the servant to the cellar to bring up
some ale to the gentlemen ; giving her orders, as secretly as possible,
to put the key into the door as she came up, and after she had set
down the ale, to go out again. My mother entertained the soldiers
as best she could, with meat and drink, till her friend came out of
his room ; and when she had got him near the door, she quickly shut
him out, she following, shutting the door behind her, turning the
key, and locking the party in. The soldiers, too late, found them-
selves fairly tricked, and bawled out at the windows terribly, threaten-
ing bloodily. Meantime Mr. Hay got fairly off, and my mother sent
up one of the neighbours to open the door, and let out the prisoners.
They searched for her in the neighbourhood, but found her not; and
not thinking it proper to propale the trick put upon them, she met
with no further trouble at that time.”

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Ill

“A pretty strange passage happened at my birth, which will at
once give some view of the violence of the time, and what my mother
was trysted with in so critical a juncture, and also a remarkable pre-
servation of my father. He was intercommuned, if I remember, and
forced to leave his family and hide. He had a secret chamber at
Glasgow, provided by, and known only to a friend of my mother’s.
When my mother fell ill of travail of me (April, or as others Sept.,
1679), she was in very hard labour. I was her last child, and I have
heard towards 51 years, and in very dangerous circumstances. After
long labour she fell into violent bleeding at the nose, and Dr. Thomas
Davidson, a worthy physician, waited on her. He was under no
small fear of her death, as all about her were. She herself was
easy, and perfectly resigned to the divine will, yet desired to see my
father, and take leave of him. She then lived in her own land at
the close at the east end of the guard-house in the Trongate. My
father came about the dark of the evening, well muffled up, not to
be known. Yet coming to the guard-house he was observed, and in
a little time a party of the guards came to the house to seize him.
He concealed himself the best way he could behind the bed in my
mother’s room. The party searched all the rooms in the house, and
at length came to it. It pleased the Lord, Whose opportunity is His
people’s extremity, that at the very instant when the commander
came into the room, she was in her last pangs, and at the very point

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of delivery. The captain was told it, and retired; but, to make all
sure, he set two sentries at the outer door to let no one go out of
the house, and also at the windows, and the close, head and foot.
The doctor had a man-servant, with a lan thorn carrying before him,
it being now night : and after my mother was delivered, he proposed
that my father should change coats with his servant, a pretty large
man, and put on his bonnet, and briskly take up the lanthom, and
go out before him, which he did with all assurance. The thing took,
and the soldiers let him pass. In a little the captain returned, and
searched the whole house and my mother’s room with the greatest
care : so that they stugged with their swords the very bed my
mother was lying on, jealousing he might be concealed there. My
mother was now easy, do as they would, and told them with much
cheerfulness the bird was flown.”

Such was the entrance upon life, in not inappropriate circum-
stances, of the future historian of the persecutions.

Wodrow tells us how he waB, when little more than a child,
with this affectionate mother in church, when she was struck with
apoplexy, which carried her off in the course of the same night.

Another incident of his childhood was his being sent by bis
father on a Sunday afternoon with a note conveying to a friend, then
on his death-bed, the tidings that the Prince of Orange had landed
at Torbay. The dying man said : “ I bless the Lord I have lived to

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113

hear the long-looked for newa Were there need to tell them in
the place I hope I am going to, I would gladly be the messenger of
them thither.” And turning to his wife he said, “My heart, see
what you have to give Robin for bringing them.”

He also describes the great joy when the full liberty came.
“ When my father preached in his own barn at Eaglesham, I mind
I was going about the yard and fields, and heard the sound of weep-
ing and supplication between sermons, and wondered what could ail
them : my father preached sometimes in the old castle of Merns, and
in other places up and down.”

This little book, only once printed, upwards of seventy years ago, 1
and now rare, is rich in such interesting and touching passages, with
many particulars regarding old Glasgow families, and is very full upon
his father’s labours and his later life.

Wodrow took his degree in 1697, having a year or two pre-
viously commenced the study of Divinity under his father. In the
intervals between college sessions, he spent two summers in the
family of his kinsman, Sir John Maxwell, acting probably as chap-
lain, as was at that time not uncommon: 1 and thereafter he was
for six years librarian to the University. In the one position he

ii 1 ------ ■ - - - ■

* Black 1 wood, 1828. *Wodrow’s Correspondence , IL 243, note.

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cultivated a taste for natural history and mineralogy, then but little
studied; and in a letter in after years to a friend at Oxford , 1 he
remarked that his parochial duties left him little time for " the sub*
terranean studies” which he had pursued with him in what was now
his parish, when they had gone “ lithoscoping ” beside the “ Aldhouae
Burn,” from which it would seem that our quarries had already
been opened. In the other position he acquired his great knowledge
of books, and was thrown into literary society : and there also with-
out doubt he imbibed the taste which he afterwards matured for
antiquities in coins, medals, and the like, of which he made an ex-
tensive and valuable collection . 1 Tradition says that he gathered
mussel -pearls from — where we shall now look for such long enough
in vain — the Auldhouse burn.* A century later, it may be remarked,
Thomas Campbell, our Scottish poet, was in his early and feeble in-
fancy deriving his first conceptions of beauty from the window of a
cottar’s house which looked across that burn from what must have
been the neighbourhood of Auldhouse bridge.

1 Letter to Mr. Edward Lhuyd, keeper of the Ashmolean Cloeet at Oxford. — Corre-
spondence, I., 32.

* See letter to Sir Robert Sibbald, Doctor in Medicine. — Correspondence, I., 171, etc.

* Crawford, in his History of Renfreioshire, says in his quaint way of Aldhouse, that it
is “ situate upon a rivulet of the same denomination, where there are found a great many
fossil shells, collected by the Rev. Mr. Robert Woodrow, minister of the Gospel at Eastwood,
(my very worthy friend), a gentleman well seen in the curious natural products of this
country.”

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At the same time Wodrow devoted himself to the work of
the pulpit and the ministry with the most conscientious assiduity.
On his father’s advice he composed his sermons with studious care,
so carefully avoiding mere extemporaneous utterance that, as he
confesses in later years, he found he had become too “ much tied
down by custom thereto.” He had felt very anxious before enter-
ing upon his life-work, to study for a winter in Holland and else-
where, but, probably on account of the exigencies of the times, he
was prevailed upon to abandon this design.

He became one of the most attractive pulpit orators of the
day, and his lively preaching and engaging manner made him
everywhere admired. 1 He was in consequence much sought after
by vacant parishes ; and Glasgow in 1712, and Stirling, first in
1717,* and again in 1726, and finally Renfrew in 1703,* earnestly
solicited his translation. The first of these, a call from what was
known as the South quarter of the City, led to the “ Eastwood
case” in the Church Courts. The Synod deemed it inexpedient
to translate, and although an appeal was taken, it was not followed

1 " Hit countenance and appearance in the pnlpit was manly and dignified ; his voice
dear and commanding ; his manner serious and animated ; and the whole impression on
the minds of his hearers was heightened and sweetened by the complete consciousness of
his perfect sincerity.” — Dr. Burns’ Biographical Sketch.

* Correspondence, II., 281. * Correspondence, III., 459.

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out Lord Pollok and the parishioners were opposed to his re-
moval, and he was himself much attached to his charge, which
being then a comparatively light one, although he did not take it
easily, afforded him leisure for the prosecution of his favourite and
important studies. There are extract letters from him to Lord
Pollok, anxiously entreating him to use his influence with the
Magistrates of Glasgow to crush the movement in the bud.

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CHAPTER X.

Wodrow seems to have received from his father the recommenda-
tion and the impulse to commemorate the dealings of God towards
the Church in the prior century, he himself regretting that he had
not noted down much that he had heard from old ministers and
others. Without doubt many of these have been recovered by his
son, and preserved in one form or other in his works. He was
himself brought into contact with many who, like his patron, had
come through the stormy Caroline period, and his researches in
libraries and among State papers were endless. There is abundant
evidence of the care and diligence with which, after he had some-
what reluctantly undertaken the work, he addressed himself to
every source of reliable information, and laboured to improve it to
the utmost. He was also sensible of the imperfections of his
style, and its unsuitableness for English readers; for although he
wrote in the Augustan age of our literature, its influence was as
yet little perceptible upon the learned, though perhaps somewhat
uncultured clergy of the northern part of the island ; and he was

certainly not in advance of his day in respect of composition and

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orthography. But he appears to have rewritten and amended the
most, if not the whole of his history, and he shows a great modesty
in his estimate of its merits ; while the preparing of such a work
for, and conducting it through the press, as well as securing sub-
scribers to it, cost him infinite pains . 1

The fruit of many arduous years, for it was in his mind in
1710, and was commenced as early as 1714, at length appeared in
two folio volumes in 1721 and 1722. It was printed at Edin-
burgh by James Watson, His Majesty’s Printer, and the names of
subscribers to the number of seven hundred or thereby are given,
itself an interesting list, containing a large proportion of ministers,
together with noblemen and country gentlemen, burgesses of Edin-
burgh, Glasgow, and other cities ; indeed the most notable men of
the time in Scotland, along with others in England and America,
in Ireland and in Holland. Among local names are My Lord
Pollock, Thomas Burnside, wright in Polloksbaws ; John Macarter,
cordiner in Pollokshaws ; William Niven, smith in Pollokshaws ;
Andrew Shiels in Pollok-shiels, and John Shiels, farmer in Titwood.

The work was dedicated to the King, George I. — and the com-
position of the introductory letter to His Majesty, seems to have

1 In evidence of these statements, see Wodrow’a Correspondence , Vol. II., and especially
the second part of the volume, passim.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF EASTWOOD. 119

exercised the author not a little. Wodrow was naturally a warm
supporter of the House of Hanover, and he mentions with satisfaction
that the Prince and Princess of Wales, the future George II. and his
Queen, who had accepted copies from him, had read through the first
volume, and meant to read the second . 1 It surely says something

for the royal industry and perseverance. He received from H.M.

Exchequer a grant of a hundred guineas ; 1 but it cannot be supposed
that he was enriched by the work, if he was not indeed a loser by
it. It is impossible to observe the minute care with which the
author has examined the multitudinous cases and events whose
history he relates, without reaching the conclusion that the pains
taken in expiscating facts and collecting and sifting information was
such as could not be surpassed. The Kirk-Sessions in the various
parts of the country concerned in the doings of those years were
communicated with, depositions taken down and recorded, and handed
in through the Presbyteries, which thus authenticated them. Then
we have in the lengthy Appendices, amounting to hundreds of folio
pages of small type, a vast collection of public documents corroborating
the narrative, in the form of Acts, Proclamations, Declarations, Peti-
tions, Minutes, Letters; with processes, indictments, examinations, lists

1 Correspondence, YoL IIL, 3, 18.

*For the order on the Treasury for payment, see Correspondence , Yol. IIL, Appendix.

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and records, all forming the material of history. In the well-known
words of Charles James Fox, in his historical work on the reign of
James II., and I offer no further judgment of Wodrow’a Magnum opus.
"No historical facts are better ascertained than the accounts of
those which are to be found in Wodrow. In every instance where
there has been an opportunity of comparing these accounts with the
records and other authentic muniments, they appear to be quite
correct.” On the crucial subject of the Wigton Martyrs it is now

admitted that his narrative is indisputable. The work has conse-
quently long been an authority with historical inquirers, and has been
much read by all in Scotland who have desired to be informed of
the facts of the case, though of course it is for these very reasons
too ponderous to have taken such a place in the popular taste as
books of the type of The Cloud of Witnesses. There are others who
are of opinion that it is a rather undigested store of such materials
as came to the compiler’s hand, an opinion thus put by the late
Sir William Stirling Maxwell, in his characteristically happy and
kindly style. "The good corn of the history of the Kirk seems to
owe quite as much to the winnowing it reoeived from Scott, as to
the painful garnerings of honest Wodrow, in whose husbandry, flail
and fanner were unknown .” 1

1 Worht, Vol. VL, p. 392.

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The history was republished in 1 829-30 1 in four volumes 8vo.,
under the editorship of the late Dr. Robert Bums of Paisley, and,
it is said, the superintendence of Principal Lee, with a biographical
notice of the author ; but that edition is not equal in interest to
the original and antique volumes which issued under the author’s
eye from his old manse at Eastwood. It is from the original

edition that I invariably quote.

Wodrow was by no means a narrow or bigoted partisan, as
is abundantly dear ; and to the extreme party, such as the
Cameronians, his history was not quite acceptable, which may be
taken as an evidence of its reasonableness and impartiality. In

October, 1713, we find Mr. Macmillan and others preaching at
Darnley, and Sir John Maxwell remonstrating with them for
coming into a parish where the minister and people were so united.

In addition to his History, Wodrow made a Collection, as it
is called, upon the lives of the Reformers, eta, which was pub*

lished in two volumes 4to. in Glasgow, 1834-5 ; and, much more

recently, the New Spalding Club has issued a handsome volume
entitled Selections from Wodrow' s Biographical Collections: Divines
of the North-East of Scotland. These collections are of much interest ;
and confirm the other evidence we have of the historian’s indefati*

1 Glaagow : Blaekie, Fnllarton & Co.
P

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gable industry, and genius for historical research. Within the last
sixty years three volumes of extracts from his correspondence
were issued by a society, called, after him, the “ Wodrow
Society,” partly composed of correspondence with learned men
in England, and on the European and American continents, and
also of letters to his wife during his frequent absences, and at
the General Assembly, and giving her the most detailed accounts
of its proceedings, and even the intrigues of party, with not a little
of trifle and gossip, interesting enough ; as well as, in the absence
of newspapers, much of the foreign and domestic news of the day.
They were designed not only for her eye, but for the perusal of her
father, of Lord Pollok, and others prevented from being present at
the Assembly : but they afford, nevertheless, evidence of her high in-
telligence, and interest in public affairs. He has sometimes a private
note to his “dearest Peggy,” inquiring tenderly for her health, or
that of the children, and assuring her of his own, and his not over-
tasking himself, as to which she had evidently much anxiety. He
has also his little commissions from her, buying a “caligoe” for
Mary, seeing to the dyeing of his wife’s hood, or getting patterns for
her (which he spells patrons), but “ Miss Aiken is very throng ” ; as
well as ascertaining the price of lemons, and reporting on his own
supply of stokins. The series sometimes ends with a direction that
his pack-horse should be sent by Johnny, to meet him on a certain

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day at the Grassmarket, for the purpose of bringing him back to
Eastwood. When at home he directs his correspondents to address
to him to the care of the post-master at Glasgow, and in this he
shows the presumption of suspicion that in these times letters were
opened by the authorities, or did not come to hand.

In one of his letters to an American divine, speaking of the
Holy Communion, he says : “ We have many irregularities in the cele-
bration of that holy ordinance that cannot yet be rectified, at least
not soon, especially here. Though in the neighbourhood of the city
of Glasgow, we have confluences and multitudes. Perhaps I may
have about three hundred of my own charge who are allowed to par-
take, and yet we will have 1000, sometimes 1100 or 1200 at our
tables. I am obliged to preach in the fields a Sabbath, or more
sometimes, before our Sacrament, and a Sabbath after it. We must
bear what we cannot help, and amidst our irregularities we want not
a mixture of good tokens.” 1 He had his own troubles too with
private baptism. 1

There is a curious reference in the Analecta to ministers going
about the congregation on the Communion Sunday, urging persons to
go forward to the table ; and mention is made of two lads of thirteen
and fourteen, as communicants, Matthew Keyl of Cowglen being one.

'Correspondence, IIL, p. 452. * Correspondence, U. 9 p. 367-9.

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There remains to be noticed this other work of Mr. Wodrow's,
his Analecta, or “ Materialls for a History of Remarkable Providences.”
This is a collection of notes made by himself between 1701 and 1723,
and is of a most miscellaneous character, — jottings made from day to
day of curious circumstances in the past which had come to his know-
ledge, but for the truth of which he expressly says that he does not
vouch, the author merely giving the narratives on the authority of his
informants, and also apologising for defects of style, etc. This note
will be found under date January, 1728. Of course they were never
intended for publication, especially in their crude and unverified form,
and they were only printed by the Maitland Club in recent timea
They contain a great deal of interesting information regarding divines
and public men of previous centuries, and wherever the hand of
the historian comes in, they are as valuable, as memoranda of the
periods, as anything that has come down to us. There is another
class of readers who will find satisfaction in the notices of the lives
and deaths of eminent saints in all ranks of life, their experiences,
their deliverances, their traits of character, and their last words. He
refers repeatedly to several persons of remarkable devoutness in humble
life in his own parish, their holy walk, communion with God in
the fields, and in sweetest visions, their experience of divine inter-
position on their behalf, their wrestling in prayer for their families to
the latest generations, for the Church, and for the country. He re-

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lates that the Highlanders, returning from Ayrshire in 1678, had
“ ravaged Eastwood parish, taking away pots, pans, and everything
portable, when Mat: Jamieson, Elder, hid a new cloak in clean straw
in the dunghill, heaping it with ashes,” etc. Jonat Ferguson
prayed, and had the assurance, “ no evil shall oome nigh thy
dwelling”; and though there was pilfering on every hand, she
escaped. But beyond this, there is a great mass of material of a
very different description. In these the other part of his nature
comes out, showing a credulity, and a love of the marvellous, which
betokens the weak side of a strong mind ; and, in the region of the
invisible world, the exact reverse of the faithful chronicler of his-
torical occurrences. Thus we find notices of monsters and prodigies,
dreams, miracles, apparitions, prophecies, cures, judgments, et hoc
genus omne, bordering on tbe ridiculous, and only raising in us the
wonder that a highly intelligent man, not two centuries ago, should
think it worth while to note them down, even for verification. The
book is altogether a Scottish Pepys’ Diary, yet with a difference. Its
almost unwarrantable publication has done much in these later times
to damage Wodrow’s credit as a historian, but unjustly. Although
there were no cases of witchcraft in the parish in his time, and he
was thus not brought personally into contact with it, he undoubtedly
believed in this phenomenon, and in the reality of spectral appear-
ances, and he approved of King James’ work on Demonology. It is

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to be remembered that capital punishment for witchcraft was not
abolished by law till after his death, and that such a body as the
Associate Synod continued to protest against the abolition of prose-
cution for witchcraft till a late date in the eighteenth century. So
lingering was the faith and feeling on the subject in the minds of
good and wise men.

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Mb. Wodbow married in November, 1708, and the union proved a
singularly happy one, Mrs. Wodrow being “a lady remarkable at
once for personal accomplishments and exalted piety.” 1 As both he
and his wife were well connected, and possessed of private substance,
he wanted neither the influence nor the means to carry out the
inquiries, and produce the works, in which he was fitted to excel.

Mrs. Wodrow was Margaret Warner by birth. Her father was
Mr. Patrick Warner, minister of Irvine, who acquired the estate of
Ardeer, and is described as a man of great learning, seriousness, and
prayer. He had suffered in the cause of the Covenant, and had
taken refuge in Holland, where in 1687 he had a remarkable inter-
view with the Prince of Orange, whose sentiments, then expressed
prior to his coming to England in the following year, are of the
utmost historic interest. 1 Mrs. Wodrow’s mother was a daughter of
Mr. William Guthrie of Pitforthy, minister of Fenwick, a kinsman of
the martyr, and author of a book on practical religion, entitled. The

1 Dr. Burn*' Biographical Sketch. 9 Vide Wodrow’s History, XL, 624-5.

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Christian's Great Interest, held in the highest estimation by such
divines as Owen and Chalmers; and of the school of Samuel Ruther-
ford, whose pupil and bosom friend the author had been. She had
been previously married to Mr. Ebenezer Vetch, one of the ministers
of Ayr, described as a singularly devout young man, who died at Edin-
burgh, while attending the Commission of Assembly, 13th Deoember,
1706. It is related that for some time previously his thoughts had
turned much on death, and that when engaged in prayer, whether
in the family or in public, he appeared more like a person in heaven
than on earth. Mr. and Mrs. Wodrow had no fewer than ten sons
and six daughters, all but one half of whom, however, died before
their father. Their family life was thus a mingled experience of joy
and sorrow in close succession, and the father’s private notices of
these events are a testimony at once to his affection and his worth ;
while he trained those spared to him in the love and service of Qod,
by the remembrance, as he records, of “their being descended from
such forefathers as Mr. James Wodrow, Mr. Patrick Warner, and Mr.
William Guthrie.”

Mrs. Wodrow, after her husband’s death, removed to Glasgow,
and there lived till 1759, surviving her husband twenty-five years.
It is said that his daughters increased their patrimony by the
manufacture of thread. Of his sons, three became ministers ; of
Eastwood, Tarbolton, and 8tevenston, respectively. One of the

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daughters married Mr. Matthew Biggar, minister of Kirkoswald ;
and of those who remained unmarried, one was devoted to works
of benevolence, — a very Mrs. Fry in Glasgow, — while another had
a literary turn, contributing to magazines, and writing Scotch songs . 1
No descendant of the historian’s name is now alive, the late Miss
Wodrow of Mauchline having been the last; though there are some
on the female side, the last representative of whom known to me
being the late estimable Mr. Charles W. Wodrow Thomson, C.A.,
Edinburgh, who presented to the Advocates’ Library a number of
the historian’s MSS. ; while many more of these, the fruits of Wad-
row’s indefatigable labours and research, have long been preserved in
the same library, and in that of the College of Glasgow.

*Of the former of these it is related that she devoted every leisure moment to chari-
table objects, and even sat np all night, unknown to the family, preparing delicacies for
the sick poor, and that she went about the city with her dark lantern in her hand
visiting and distributing to them. By those benevolent labours she is believed to have
shortened her life, as she died about forty. Her funeral was attended by a greater and
more afflicted crowd than had often been witnessed in Glasgow. Marion, the other
daughter mentioned in the text, “ wrote some popular songs well known to the groups
of female choristers who then assembled with their spinning wheel, and made vocal every
hut and hamlet. Two of these songs began : —

and

‘ The man that’s made for love and me ; ’

‘ It’s no very lang since syne
That I had a lad o’ my ain.’

She left a collection of Soots poems in manuscript, long preserved.” It would be interest-
ing to know whether the collection is still in existence, and whether any of her poems
have lingered in popular memory.

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From Miss Wodrow the present writer received before her
death a very interesting relic in the form of Wodrow’s copy of
the Shorter Catechism, with proofs, used by him at visitations in
the parish, — a small edition printed at Edinburgh in 1702. Attached
to it are some sixty pages of MS., containing the names
and residences of all his parishioners, in three lists, dated re-
spectively 1708, 1713, and 1722. The names of persons of ex-
aminable age are all included, and as the rolls had been used in
successive years there are many deletions. They afford evidence of
habitual use, and great ministerial diligence. Many marks, intelli-
gible only to the writer, accompany the names ; perhaps if these
could be made out, they would show how the parties acquitted
themselves in examination. Among the place-names, besides those
still in use, are Kirkhouse, Holehouse, Upper and Nether Davie-
land, Roucan Mils, Brocklees, Akenside, Over Darnley, Clogg-hills,
Maidlands, Brokenbriggs, Blindman’s-weeL Polloktoun is populous,
and Shawes more so. Among family names are Maxwell, Keil,
Govan, Tassy, Finlay, Biggart, Roxburgh, which, with full
names, such as Allan Cunningham, and Gavin Livingstone, are to
be found among us still, while Allan Kirkwood appears in other
documents even one or two centuries earlier. There are very few
Celtic or Irish names. Where the former appear, they are
commonly female servants. For safer preservation the writer, after

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taking a careful copy, deposited this valuable relic in the Glasgow
University Library, where are so many of Wodrow’s remains, and
where it is easy of access to parishioners and othera who may be
interested in it.

Among the incidents in the Session Records in Wodrow’s time
are the ordinations of Lord Pollok as elder in 1704, and of his suc-
cessor in 1729, and there is reference to the re-institution in this
parish of the order of Deacons. In 1732 all persons are dis-
charged from selling of liquors or keeping company in their houses
after the drum is beat at ten of the clock at night (with the
approbation of Sir John Maxwell who was present at the meeting),
especially in “the town of the Shawes where there are the greatest
temptations this way.” In 1727 there is the presentation by Lord
Pollok, “out of his regard for the congregation and session, where-
of he hath been ane usefull member these twenty-two years,” of
four handsome silver Communion cups, “ with a box of wainscot for
keeping them.” The cost of the cups appears to have been £292
4a Scota The inscription on the cups as recorded in the minutes
cf session is as follows: — Deo et Ecclesib de Eastwood Sacbavit
Dominus Joannes Maxwell, 1727. These cups were highly prized,
and were in constant use till most unfortunately they were carried
off in 1855 by a gang of housebreakers. The loss was at once
replaced by the late Sir John Maxwell in the gift of four still

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larger cups. Five years after the gift of Lord Pollock, Wodrow
refers to him as attending the Communion, and being regularly at
church in wonderful health in his 84th year, and he survived for
two years more.

It would have been interesting here to trace from these and
other records the erection of successive parochial schools on various
sites, but as the subject is rather wide, and is foreign to the pur-
pose of these memorials, I have deemed it preferable to omit such.
It may, however, be mentioned that when the Session Record
opens in 1689, Mr. Thomas Lock was schoolmaster and Session Clerk,
which offices he held till his death in 1727. In the following year
the minister along with the heritors “mett and modifyed a Sallary
for a Schulemaster in this place of one Hundred Merks Scots money.”
They also found that “there ought to be a convenient Schoolhouse
built,” and they left it to the minister and Session “to look out
for a person fitt to keep school in this place.” They accordingly
appointed James Jack in Mains of Pollock. In 1741 we have men-
tion of “Mr. John Gibson, Student of Divinity and present School-
master.” On his removal in 1747, John Buchanan was appointed
Schoolmaster and Session Clerk, who in 1776 declares that “by
reason of his age and his broken voice he was unable to sing or
present in the church." He received one pound sterling yearly for
an assistant to him in precenting; and in 1769 the heritors increased

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his salary as schoolmaster from a hundred merks to a hundred pounds.
Mr. Buchanan died late in 1789, and early in the following year
Mr. Alexander Loudon, schoolmaster at Cathcart, was appointed on
trial for a year, and it was resolved to erect a new school and school-
house on the lands of Cartcraigs. Mr. Loudon seems to have had
but a short career, although in the course of it he won golden
opinions, as is attested by a small marble tablet, placed in the
school, and removed in 1856 to the present ample building. That
memorial, perhaps rather uncommon at the time, and still only too
rare, bears, so far as I can decipher it, that he died on the 5th June,
1799, in the thirty-first year of his age, and that it was erected by
his scholars, “as a testimony of their sense of his worth, and as an
affectionate memorial of their gratitude to him as an able, kind, and
devoted teacher.” Such a record should not be allowed quite to die,
although every personal memory of his worth and early death has
perished. I may say, however, that I had, in long past years, the
pleasure of the acquaintance of Mr. Andrew Galbraith, who had by
that time risen to the highest civic honours in Glasgow, and who
repeatedly acknowledged to me his obligations to a schoolmaster of
Eastwood, who, I am persuaded, and so far as my memory serves
me, must have been Mr. Loudon, and in whose school, and, I think,
in whose family, he had been trained.

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I have not later records before me, but Mr. Loudon must have
been immediately followed by Mr. Macintyre, who again was suc-
ceeded by one of his sons, while another, Duncan, became in 1844,
minister of the parish.

A Minute of Session of 10th June, 1751, bears that —

“John Buchanan, Schoolin', entred a complaint ag‘ Alex' Vay
in Shaws for teaching a school in said place contrary to the call of
said John Buchanan, when Sir John Maxwell as Patron, did enjoin
Mr. Wodrow to go to said Yay, and discharge him from teaching
any further as being expressly contrary to the said Schoolin', his call,
which accordingly was done, and his teaching disannulled.”

The death of Walter Stewart of Pardovan occurred at Pollok
in 1719, in the time of Wodrow, when he was on a visit to
Lord Pollok, and he was a kinsman of both. His remains, as
afterwards those of his loving widow, were interred in the Pollok
vault ; and on its wall she placed a beautiful memorial marble,
still in excellent preservation. It would appear, from a letter of
Wodrow to “ Lady Pardovan,” as he styles her, that this monu-
ment was ordered from Holland, and that it is placed in that part
of the wall of the vault which is immediately opposite to the spot
where the good man lies. 1 He left £100 Scots to the poor of

1 Correspondence, YoL III. 86. The inscription on the memorial tablet will be found
in the New Statistical Account of Scotland, YoL YU., p. 38, note, sub Eastwood.

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this parish, to which bequest she also added a like sum, aud her
correspondence with Mr. Wodrow on the subject is contained in the
minutes of session. Pardovan’s “ Collections,” as his work is called,
is, in an inscription interesting on various grounds, dedicated to
Lord Pollok. It may be said to be the earliest, as it is an un-
questioned, authority on Church government in Scotland, and on
rules of procedure in the Church Courts ; but, besides this, it gives
such a view as is nowhere else to he found of the attitude of
the Reformed Church to various usages, rites, and services.
Wodrow himself says of it that it gives “ the fullest view of
our discipline and practice of anything I could think upon;” 1 It

affords evidence of a breadth and catholicity in Church matters
of which many in the present age have little idea, and the enquiring
student will never consult it without satisfaction.

We have now reached the period of Wodrow’s decline and
death, and on this subject I may adopt the words of Dr. Burns : —

“ It need not surprise us that labours so numerous and severe
should have told upon his bodily health, and even shortened his
days, and that though his constitution was naturally good.* In

1 Correspondence, YoL II., 463.

s In the summer of 1725 he suffered greatly from “a fit of the soiatick,” and he
was laid aside from duty thereby both at that time and throughout the following winter.
— Correspondence, YoL III., 215, 228.

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1726 he seems first to have seriously complained, when we find his
friends and correspondents advising him to abridge his studies, and
take horseback exercise, as also to visit Bath, or some other mineral
well. It is interesting to see the affectionate sympathy of his
friends in this his period of distress. A species of gout or rheuma-
tism seems to have given him great uneasiness, while the recom-
mendation of friends to avoid giving way to melancholy appears to
point to a tendency in that direction. In the latter end of 1731, 1 a
small swelling appeared on his breast, which gradually increased till
April, 1732, when an unsuccessful attempt was made to remove it by
caustic.* The effect on his bodily frame was very injurious. He
became greatly emaciated, and gradually declined till his death,
which occurred on 21st March, 1734, in his fifty-fifth year. He
bore this long-continued distress with admirable fortitude, aud un-
abated piety. The faith of the gospel supported his mind in
perfect peace, and his dying scene was truly edifying. The day

before, he gathered his children around his bed, and gave each his

1 Just a year before, he had lost his eldest son, a young man of much promise, after
a lingering illness. — Correspondence , Yol. III., 413, 472.

*A curiously minute account of the symptoms and treatment of his illness is given in
a narrative in the handwriting of his son, Dr. Patrick Wodrow, appended to the original
MS. of Professor James Wodrow’s life, preserved in the Advocates 9 Library. It is added,
“Dr. Wodrow has writt the case to Mr. Monro’ 9 — presumably the celebrated Monro
primus, of the University of Edinburgh.

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parting blessing, with counsel suitable to the age of each. The two
youngest, under four, were incapable of understanding, but he laid
his hands upon their heads, and devoutly prayed, bestowing the

blessing of the aged patriarch.

“ He carried with him to the grave the affectionate regrets of
a strongly attached people, and of a large circle of friends. His
death was felt as a public loss, though he had been withdrawn
for some time from the disputes of the day, including the origin
of the Secession, his thoughts being fixed on a better country .” 1

Mr. Wodrow was buried among the ministers, and beside his

children, in a spot near to Pardovan’s memorial slab. When a
handsome monument was raised to him by subscription upwards of
sixty years ago, it was placed in a more prominent position a very

little to the eastward of his grave, and this is kept in preserva-

tion by the affectionate care of his descendants.

1 Biographical Sketch .

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CHAPTER XII.

The historian was succeeded in this charge by his eldest surviving son,.

who bore his father’s Christian name. He was ordained in February,

1735, when he was scarcely more than twenty-three years of age. Very

little is known of him or his ministry, and the Session Records are

destitute of interest. In 1732, and again in 1743, they had under

their most serious consideration the increasing profanity, debauchery,

and disorder amongst the parishioners. This state of matters marka

the change from a quiet rural parish to the manufacturing one which

it was now becoming, and we find a notice in 1744 of a “Caligo” (sic}

printer near Pollokshaws, and in 1751 of a printfield ; and of a pottery

at Potterfield. Pollokshaws having not yet been erected into a

burgh, Sir John Maxwell is appealed to, “to prohibit all drinking at

unseasonable hours, and the Session appoint one of the elders in the

Shawes, with any they shall please to take with them, to visit the

public-houses after ten of the clock at night to require the company

to dismiss, which if they do not they are to inform the Session of

their contumacy.” This minute has been frequently printed. By the

time of the later minute, there seems to have been a constable in
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the village. As far back as 1711 there was evidently the working
of coal at Nitshill, a man named Maxwell, at Slates of Darnley,
having been killed going down the hutch, when a piece of ice fell upon
him, — “a good man,” says old Wodrow, “with a shrewish wife.”

The only indication of the son having inherited his father’s tastes
is his having written an account of the life and writings of Mr.
Hugh Binning, minister of Govan, prefixed to his sermons. He
resigned his charge in 1757 on account of bad health and other
infirmities, and retired to the Little Cumbrae, where he died in 1784,
after having been twice married. Some of his children emigrated to
America. 1

The next minister was Mr. James Simpson, who was ordained in
1758. He cannot then have been quite young (indeed, he appears to
have been licensed for upwards of twenty years), and he had pre-
viously been resident in the parish, it may be as chaplain at Pollok,
for he had been admitted as far back as 1744 a member of Session,
it being then not uncommon to ordain probationers as elders. In

1 “A son and snocesaor of the historian Wodrow, in the parish of Eastwood, spent his
latter days in this sequestered island, where he died, and was interred in a tomb which had
•some time before been constructed for the sepulture of one of his daughters, who had died
here in early life of consumption. This romantic burial-place is situated on the brink of a
high precipice, overlooking the ocean near the south-west comer of the island; a spot to
which it is said the young lady during her illness had beoome peculiarly attached, and
where before her death, as stated on her tombstone, she requested she might be laid.” —
New Statistical Account, Yol. V., pp. 272-3.

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connection with his appointment to the parish, there appears in the
Session minutes an evidence of the existence of the old staunch
Presbyterian leaven, in the form of a protest, dated from Bogle’s
Bridge, and signed by one elder and six other parishioners. They
express themselves averse to leave the Church of Scotland, or to
deprive themselves of the ministry of Mr. Simpson, whom they be-
lieve, “to do him all manner of justice, to be a minister sound in
the faith, and of a holy life and conversation.” But they feel bound,
“not with pleasure, but very afflicting to us,” to testify against his
conduct in "receiving a presentation from the Patron without their
knowledge or consent, or without the call of the Christian people, or
at most but a few of them.” They add that they did not desire to
“tie down Mr. Simpson’s conscience,” and he allowed for the sake of
peace that this unprecedented step of theirs should be recorded, but
declaring himself unconscious of having acted a censurable part. Not-
withstanding this unfortunate step at the outset of his ministry, he
proved a much respected man, and discharged his ministry with
acceptance till his death in 1790.

It was in the later years of his life, as well as of that of Sir
James Maxwell, that the church was removed from its ancient site
to that of the present one, a magnificent position, and highly con-
venient for the population. It was doubtless the growth of Pollok-
shaws which led to the change, and the village of Thornliebank,

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lying nearer to the old church, on the other side, was then in its
earliest infancy. It is said that, on the Eglinton family expressing
a desire to have the new church, like the old, on their estate,
Sir James gracefully waived his claim to the same effect as regarded
his property, and it was placed on the extreme corner to the north
of the Eastwood lands. That barony has since been divided among
various holders, and the portion which includes the site of the
church is now in the hands of the proprietor of Pollok.

The building then erected, though admired at that time of corrupt
taste, had nothing to commend it, and it came to the end of its
existence in 1862 unlamented, when the beautiful, spacious, and
church-like building, one comparing favourably with many later and
even more costly erections, and since then adorned with some beauti-
ful painted glass windows, was built for the parish by the late
Sir John Maxwell, Bart., in the tenth year of the ministry of the
present incumbent. The church is cruciform, of the early Gothic
period of architecture, and it is not only chaste and pleasing in its
lines and ornamentation, but singularly well-balanced in all its parts
and arrangements, so as to “combine elegance of architectural com-
position, the sentiment of a place set apart for worship, and complete
adaptability to Scottish forms.” At its west end are placed a tower
and spire, together rising to a height of 136 feet, and from the
nature of the site it has the appearance of a yet greater elevation.

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A large and finely-toned bell in the tower was the gift of the late
Walter Crum, Esq., of Thomliebank, for whom, like the other
members of that family, the parishioners have always entertained
feelings of the utmost pride and esteem. Mr. Crum himself laid the
foundation-stone with Masonic honours on the 15th November, 1862;
and the church was opened for public worship on 6th September, 1863.
The heritors have since erected a spacious Session Hall, with a new
vestry, and ladies’ rooms. The original architects of the building
were the late Charles Wilson, Esq., with David Thomson, Esq., his
coadjutor and partner, and the whole structure was erected under
the superintendence of the latter. The building, embosomed among
ancient trees, can be seen from every side, and from a great part
of the west end of Glasgow. 1

A manse, too, built on the old site in 1791, the former having
been condemned in the previous year, had even a shorter history.
It was constructed in a very insufficient manner, and when it was
found necessary, in 1853, to build it anew, it was deemed preferable
to remove it also, by an excambion of the glebe, to the neighbour-

‘Nothing has been said in the text of the great munificence of the late Sir John
Maxwell in building and maintaining schools, rendered necessary by the increase of the
population. The like course has been followed by the succeeding members of the family,
and by the landowners of the parish ; and I gratefully acknowledge the unfailing generosity
and public spirit of all the heritors in every matter respecting both ohurch and school.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF EASTWOOD.

143

hood of the church, and for the convenience of the great body of
the population.

When the old manse was removed for the extension of the
burying ground, there was unearthed a small but elegant earthen-
ware jar, somewhat resembling one figured in Sir Daniel Wilson’s
Archeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, at p. 678. It was
handed to the late Alexander Crum, Esq., of Thornliebank, as Chair-
man of the Parochial Board, at whose instance the last addition to
the Cemetery was formed.

It may here be mentioned' that there has long been kept at
Pollok, among many interesting documents and remains, the original
of the first Solemn League or King’s Covenant, of 1587, as noticed in
both the Old and New Statistical Accounts of this parish, and in a
note in the volume which contains “The Confession of Faith,” etc.

Mr. Simpson, feeling the infirmities of age, had latterly an
assistant and successor conjoined with him, the only occasion in the
history of the charge when such a measure has been adopted. The
parish was fortunate in securing the services of Mr. John M'Caig,
though he was not long spared to it. He was licensed by the
Presbytery of Stirling in 1780, and ordained here in 1786, but died
in 1791, having survived Mr. Simpson and occupied the full charge
for only eleven months, as his tombstone records ; and he is one
of the few ministers of this parish who has such a memorial, at

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least in preservation. He was deeply lamented, and his memory
fondly cherished.

He was followed in the same year by Mr. Stevenson MacGill,
one of the more eminent of the incumbents of this parish. He
was the son of a ship-builder at Port- Glasgow. While pursuing
his studies at College, he was tutor for a time in the family of
the Hon. Henry Erskine of Almondell, Lord Advocate of Scotland,
a distinguished lawyer and politician of the period. He was licensed
in 1790, and filled the pulpit of Eastwood from 1791 till 1797
with promise and power, when he was translated to the Tron
Church, Glasgow, and thence to the Chair of Divinity in the
University in 1814, after having the degree of D.D. conferred upon
him by Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1803. He lived till 1840,
and his life was written by Dr. Bums. Dr. MacGill was a truly
amiable and estimable man.

There next falls to be mentioned Mr. Robert Anderson, who was
translated from the parish of Symington, Lanarkshire, in 1798, but
who only remained till 1802, when he was removed to Trinity
College parish, Edinburgh, and he was subsequently promoted to
the historic charge of Old Greyfriars. When that Church was
restored under Dr. Robert Lee, after having been destroyed by
fire, a memorial window was placed in it by bis son. The late
Principal M'Farlane informed the writer that Mr. Anderson was

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145

a florid, but by no means profound evangelical preacher, and lie
had a class of admirers who used to follow him from one church
to another in Glasgow, even on Communion Sundays, to hear him
preach and serve tables. But he spoke in a very depreciatory
manner of his style of preaching, and said that he had earned
for himself the soubriquet of Boss Bob.

Through this rapid succession of ministers here in the close of
the eighteenth century, there were old persons alive after the
settlement of the present incumbent in 1853, who informed him

that he was the seventh within their recollection, and he has even
seen one or two very aged persons who were baptised by the
younger Wodrow. This is the more remarkable as the two

ministers who are next to be mentioned filled the charge between
them for upwards of fifty years; and to have lived in the days

of four, or especially five, prior to these, makes up an unusually

lengthened record.

Mr. George Logan, who is still remembered by a few par-
ishioners, was born at Calton, Glasgow, in, it is believed, 1759.
He was sent to College, strange to say, in his eleventh year. He
never attained to great bodily stature, but then he must have been
a very small person indeed. He got from Dr. Moore, the somewhat
eccentric Professor of Greek, the epithet of Gigas, but in scholar-
ship he was no stripling, and the Professor used to get the little

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man to stand beside him on the rostrum, and declaim before the
class. He spent fully ten years at College, and was licensed
at the age of twenty-one, having been transferred, on account of
the number of Candidates before them, from the Presbytery of
Glasgow to that of Paisley, within which so much of his future life
was to be spent. He first laboured for eight years in a Scotch
Church at Newcastle, where his emoluments were so small that
to make up an income he had to engage in private teaching. He
was again for eight years minister of the Chapel of Ardoch
in Perthshire, in which he used to say that he spent his
happiest days. He is also reported to have been the first
to establish Sunday Schools within the Presbytery of Auchter-
arder. In that charge he attracted the attention of Dr. Balfour,
minister of Lecropt, who, when later in life in the charge of the
High Church, Glasgow, brought him under the notice of the Pollok
family, with a view to his appointment to Eastwood. Two mem-
bers of the family — Mrs. Montgomery of Auldhouse, and Mrs. Greville
Ewing of Glasgow — took an opportunity of hearing him when assist-
ing at a Communion in Glasgow, and this led to his being presented.
He was inducted in 1802, and remained till his death in July, 1843.
This event was coincident with the Secession of that year ; and,
having cast in his lot with the Free Church party, he was most
desirous to append his name to the Deed of Demission, but was pre-

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147

vented by his last illness. When the late Lady Matilda Maxwell
visited him on his deathbed, she found him, sad to say, in the
wanderings of his mind, through senile debility, imagining that he
was cast out of his manse and left to die on the wayside. He had
a large family, none of whom are now alive ; one daughter, who
died comparatively recently, attained to nearly the age of one hundred.
Two sons were licensed, and, though they assisted in their father’s
church and other places, they never obtained charges. One son
became Mathematical Master in Perth Academy ; another, Thomas,
was settled in Glasgow, and was one of the most humorous and
genial of men. He was the only member of the Glasgow Society
of the Sons of the Clergy who, in seceding from the Church in
1843, did not, at the same time, abandon the Society. A meet-
ing with him, much desired by me, was to have taken place in
the autumn of 1854. On reaching the house I found that,
through the prevalence of cholera, not one of the guests appeared
save myself, and on leaving the house the kindly host informed
me that Mr. Logan had been that morning cut off by the fatal
epidemic.

Mr. Logan kept up his scholarship to the last, and in clerical
society was very apt in classical quotation, having especially the
Greek Testament, to use a familiar expression, at his fingers’ ends.
But he does not seem to have devoted himself to preparation for

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the pulpit, nor to have shone as a preacher. He was much exer-
cised by the prevalence of infidelity in his parish — the fruit of the
French Revolution; and he had not perhaps the happiest way of
meeting those imbued with such principles. He was severe in dis-
cipline to a fault, and left in his parish an exceptional number of
the young . unbaptized.

The following anecdote, applicable no doubt to some minister,
has been told of him, but his relation to it is not vouched for.
The minister in question was at once very strict in his admission to
sealing ordinances, and in his personal habits somewhat stingy. He
was visited one evening by a farmer, who, anticipating difficulty in
obtaining what he desired — baptism for an infant — resolved to play
off one of the minister’s characteristic qualities against the other. As
the examination proceeded, a suspicion crossed the mind of the
minister and he became very uneasy, looking out now at one window
of his study and then at another. He then put the question, “ By
the bye, Mr. Smith, how did you come over this evening ? ” “ Oh,

I brought the powny,” said the fanner. “ Yes, yes, and what did
you do with it ? ” asked the minister in some agitation, and got the
reply, “ I just tied it to your hay-stack.” The interrogator started
to his feet, bade his parishioner good-night, and hastened him to
the door saying — “ Well, Mr. Smith, you have answered my ques-

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tions most satisfactorily. You may bring your child for baptism
next Sabbath.”

The vacancy was supplied by the appointment of Mr. Duncan
M'Intyre, whose father and brother, as has been mentioned, had
filled the office of parochial teacher here. He had to encounter

another kind of difficulty from Mr. Logan in a church almost
absolutely deserted of its congregation by the Free Church Secession,
and in these disastrous days for the Church he had not much made
up the leeway by the date of his death in 1853, when he who now
tells the tale of his predecessors was ordained on the 17 th November,
his being, including the Episcopal incumbencies, and reckoning Mr. John
Maxwell’s different periods of services as two, the twentieth ministry
since the Reformation, and now quite the longest since that era. It,
too, has witnessed many changes, some of which have been already
referred to ; and very especially in respect of church extension, two
new places of worship having been built, and three new parishes quoad
sacra having been disjoined out of this entirely, and two others
partially.

The author has felt that he could not presume to include in this
record the history of other Christian bodies in the parish, or to notice
ministers of the highest respectability and worth who have filled their
pulpits, the more so as he is not possessed of the requisite information
in a complete or satisfactory form.

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Mention has been made of both Sir John and Lady Matilda
Maxwell, and it is impossible to close without a loving reference
to a couple who made Pollok for a number of happy years a
fountainhead of tender beneficence to the estate and parish, and the
centre and home of such a cultured and refined social circle as
will live for ever in the affectionate memory of its survivors,
although these, alas, are becoming sadly reduced in number. Sir
John was the perfect ideal of the chivalrous knight of other days,
and Lady Matilda was possessed of such singular ability, grace and
goodness, as gave her a remarkable influence in her day. She was
not the least of many eminent saints who have adorned the house
of Pollok. In addition to some who have been mentioned in these
pages, D’Arcy Brisbane, Lady Maxwell, in the century before last,
whose memoir was published after her death, should here be named.
Lady Matilda felt honoured, in her great humility, to fill her place,
and she treasured, with her memory, some of her napery and other be-
longings. An old traditional saying has it that that house has
never been in any age without one such eminent servant of God.
When one happened to repeat it to the late Sir John, he remarked
with like characteristic modesty — “Yes, there have been many such
among the ladies of this family.”

I have studiously sought in these pages to bear in mind the
limitations of my subject, namely, to the ecclesiastical antiquities of

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151

this parish, and I have therefore neither brought down my notices
to quite recent dates, nor have I referred to families who have, even
in earlier times, filled an important place, though not always strictly
ecclesiastical, in the history of the parish, and the representatives of
some of whom are happily among us still. Those, for example, of the
ancient family of Tassie, are with us no longer in the parish, but
that family have left a distinguished record in the fine arts, which is
not likely to be soon forgotten ; while various other families, which
might be named, have greatly contributed to the industrial interests of
the population, and its educational, moral, and social advancement. I
am most anxiously desirous not even to seem to trench upon the ground
soon, I hope, to be occupied by a most competent authority. It is
for such reasons that I have not said one-half of what I have felt
impelled to say of the dear and venerated baronet, and his inestim-
able lady, who filled the highest place in this parish, when I first
came to it, nor yet of his gifted and much esteemed successor, Sir
William Stirling-Maxwell, and his beloved partner. Lady Anna, who
next followed; more especially as I have otherwise endeavoured to
pay my humble tribute to their never-to-be-forgotten memory. But
as it pertains more to earlier times, I may be allowed to go back
for a moment to Darcy Brisbane, wife and widow of Sir Walter
Maxwell. She belonged to the ancient family of Brisbane in the
parish of Largs, but her domestic happiness was of brief duration.

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as, within two years, she was deprived not only of her husband, but,
in a few weeks later, of her infant son — for a brief time, Baronet of
Pollok — and he, it would appear, through a fatal accident, and she
was thus left a childless widow at nineteen years of age. On receiving
tidings of her last bereavement she is reported, after a short struggle
with natural feeling, to have said, “ I see that my Lord requires my
whole heart, and He shall have it” From this time, retiring from
the world, and refusing all other proposals of marriage which came
to her, as she was possessed not only of high character and gifts,
but of a most attractive appearance and manner, she lived in seclusion
in Edinburgh, devoting herself to every good work, though
making many visits to England and elsewhere, to look after her
religious and charitable schemes. She was led to adopt the views of
Wesley, with whom she was personally and intimately acquainted ;
although she continued to frequent her Parish Church, and to the
last to receive and value the visits of the city clergy. She was also
a personal friend of Lady Glenorchy, after whose death she acted as
the trustee of her beneficence. She died at Edinburgh in 1810, and
was interred in the Greyfriars Churchyard, where a monument marks
her grave. Various memorials of her life and experience have been
written ; the latest form of which is a memorial by the B>ev. J.
Gilchrist Wilson, published by John Mason, London, 1852.

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153

I must further make mention of another lady of the Pollok
family whose life has been written. 1 She was a daughter of Sir
James Maxwell, of whom mention has been already made, and she
was early brought under deep religious impressions. Lady Maxwell
formed a second marriage, with Sir John Shaw Stewart, Baronet, of
Ardgowan ; and thereafter her daughter, making that place the
home of her youthful years, used every means to promote evangelical
religion in the neighbouring village. It is somewhat amusing to read
that when she spoke to some of the people there as sinners needing
salvation, “ they assured me that they were not sinners : but some
of them excused me for speaking so to them, as they knew that in
Pollokshaws there were very bad characters.” She was afterwards
married to the Rev. Greville Ewing, the excellent minister of a
Congregational Church iu Glasgow, with whom she spent a most
useful and happy wedded life of twenty-six years. It was, however,
sadly terminated by her death, resulting from a lamentable carriage
accident at the falls of Clyde, in September, 1828. By the kind

permission of her brother, the then Sir John Maxwell, her body

was interred in the Pollok vault in Eastwood churchyard, where,

1 Memoir of Barbara Ewing, by her husband, Greville Ewing. Glasgow : Gallie, 1829.
In its earlier pages mention is made of various eminent Christians of the Pollok family, and
of the gratitude which she felt for the goodness of God in thus signally honouring the race of
whioh she sprang.

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later, her husband was laid by her side. That vault and the
surrounding burying ground hold the remains, I venture to say, of
no common number of great and good souls, for a country church-
yard, who, through so many Christian centuries, have run their
godly race, and now rest in the joyful hope of a blessed resurrection,
through the merits of the one Saviour to Whom, under differing
forms of faith, and in various ages of Christian enlightenment and
earthly conditions and circumstances, they humbly looked in life,
and departed in peace when their hour was come.

THE END.

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ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA.

Note on page 19 . — There has lately been found on an old map of the estate of
Auldhouse an indication of a well, marked S. Ninian’s well, in close proximity to the
foundation of S. Conval, near to the parish burial-ground.

Note on page 27 . — The double date of S. Conval’s day may suggest to some the
possibility of two saints of the name.

Page 14, line 16 —for “ amocintatas ” read “amoenitates.”

„ 24, note, line 3— for “Aic testibus ” read “his testibus

„ 42, line 19 —for “ hansel elders” read “ householders.”

„ 43, „ 13 —for “pro priorum” read “ propriorum.”

„ 44, „ 17— for “nepatem” read “nepotem.”

„ 46, „ 9 —for “for” read “far.”

„ 59, „ 3— for “be” read “he.”

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